The Dangerous Mindset Behind Passive Income | Richie Mensah

Passive income, biggest scam ever. There's no such thing as passive income. There's only active income. If you want to make something succeed, you need to give it your attention.

The difference between an entrepreneur and a businessman. An entrepreneur is somebody who's trying to solve a problem with their unique skills. Whereas a businessman is somebody who takes a solution that already exists.

Entrepreneurs born or they can be made. Oh, everything can be made. And but there's one thing that there's one thing that's going around that I need to correct. Everybody thinks that the only way to become rich right now is to own a business. It's not true. There are other ways to become rich. It's just ownership is what you should be looking for. It's not owning a business.

The goal is excellence, not money. Money finds excellence. Let me break down how money works.

Excellence. What does it mean? Excellence is doing everything to the best of your ability. Perfection is trying to do it to reach a certain standard that has been set by others.

Make a plan straight away. Yes. Okay. Why? You need to make a plan because if you don't know where you are going, you are never going to get there.

Most creatives are selfish because they are not looking at what value they can give to people. They are looking at what value they can receive. We are all born selfish, but the only way to be successful is to be selfless.

How are you playing it safe with your wife? If there's issues, maybe people arguing at home, how does it that translate in business? All relationships are relationships. There are good days, there are bad days. There are advantages and there are disadvantages. Truth of the matter is,

Hi Richie. Hi Rean. Today I'm with another podcast host. And normally those conversations feel a bit weird cuz I'm thinking too much. What if they think I'm asking a silly question and all that? Um, I hope this one goes well. Thank you so much for coming. Technically, I'm a new podcast host, so you can just think I'm the old Richie.

Have you seen your growth on YouTube? I don't think you're new cuz I'm like, I saw your Instagram video and you were um 5K subscribers at that. I think that was beginning of this month. So, I'm like, this guy started in September. Small small. No, but I'm I'm happy for you and I'm happy we are getting more of these podcast. And I think when I was watching an interview with headless, you mentioned that you believe the mind to be a very powerful tool and that that inspired the name mastermind. We'll talk about the podcast later on. But for someone watching this video before that please, how are you doing? A day like an old day. I'm awesome. I always say I'm awesome. You know. You're awesome. Yeah.

Do you ever give a negative answer if your day is not going well? Because I think people are used to say I'm fine. No, no, no. I never give a negative answer. I'm always awesome. Why? Awesome is the state that is who I am. Okay. Whatever situation or whatever temporary thing is happening today is not me. I am awesome. Oh, yeah. I love that. Okay. For someone that will be watching this conversation for the next 1 hour, maybe 1 hour, 30 minutes depending on how it goes. Who is rich men? What do they need to know about you? Hey Wendy, say a question. Who is um okay? I'm I'm multifaceted. I'm never very good at answering the question who I am because I think different people know me for different things. Okay. Some see me as a man who loves music and created a music what word do I use family. Um, some also know me as the businessman who keeps innovating. Some known me as the talkative who's always talking about the mind and conspiracy theories and developing yourself. And some know me as someone who likes food a lot. So it depends on who you ask. But you don't look like someone who likes food. I know, right?

But let's let's take the music side of things. Okay? When we're doing the research about you, we noticed you started music at a very early stage. And I think you mentioned that your family music was something I was running through your mother. Yeah. But then you took it a step further. You're not just doing it in the choir or maybe in school. You took it a step further. One thing that I mostly think about is when it comes to career, there's the passion side of things where people are doing it because they have the passion, right? And there the side where you're doing it because you want to make money from it. When you at the at the early stages when you realize, okay, you like music, you love music. What were you thinking about? The truth about me is I never think about the money. Okay? I'm purpose driven. you know, I've come to understood from when I was a child and I've learned even more from practice that money is only a byproduct of excellence. So I always just chase what I can do excellently and then once I do that the money starts to come automatically. So it's always been about the passion, the purpose, what I can do, how I can do it well, how I can improve. So from childhood that's that's what it was when I was watching cartoons and hearing the scoring behind it or listening to different songs and you know I always felt like there was something magical about music and I tapped into it. How can I also make something similar?

There was this thing you said where it was like you didn't really plan how things were going to go especially when you established the link studio before it became entertainment and all that. What's your um take on planning before starting cuz you know there are people who would want to plan everything one like every 3 months I'm doing this after the 3 months I'm doing this but I'm just just going I'm that kind of person though what's your take on that? So here's my thing make a plan throw it away. Make a plan throw it away. Yes. Okay. Why? You need to make a plan because if you don't know where you are going, you are never going to get there. So the first thing you need to do is make a plan. And then throw it away because life is not going to go according to your plan. So the most important thing is the destination of where you want to get to. Mhm. But so once you know okay let's say as I started masterminds. I have a 5year plan. I have a 10year plan. Okay. Um what I achieved in my one month was what I thought I was going to achieve in my first 3 months. Okay. So I'm not going according to plan. Do you get what I mean? So you have to make the plan. It's not good to just wake up and move without making a plan. But you need to take the action knowing that things are not going to go according to plan. So you will like maneuver as things are going. Yeah.

Beautiful. All right. Take me through from JHS to you didn't do uni. You dropped out from JHS to uni. What was the journey? So in JHS, so as the whole JHS time, I was still very on the academia route, you know, get a good job after school, blah blah blah, and everything. But as time went on, my love for the music grew. And I always say I have to give shout outs to the late Ken Cafe. He was the music director at Mottown School. and he he pointed out to me that I could do sound engineering which showed me that I could still find a way to be in academia inside of music. So that's what took me down that path. So once can cafe introduced sound engineering to me, it opened my eyes to see that entertainment is not just about being a performer. It's not just about singing, not just about acting, but there was a whole business side behind it. So and especially since I loved science, hearing I could do sound engineering was exciting. So that made me jump in. I always say my my journey has been intentional but accidental. Okay. Because with every step then I found out more. So sound engineering led to me starting the studio and then when I was recording artist and everything learning more then I learned about record labels. I learned about Barry Gordon Jr. and thought okay I think that that's the kind of thing that I would I would like to be not just a singer but somebody who was handling talent and so it's like things just evolved more and more so even though on the outside people saw me as the musician the producer the other sides were normally stronger behind the scenes.

Yeah fun fact I just realized when I was watching it with and I realized that some of the songs you did we used to listen it listen to it back then but we didn't even know who the person. See the gross I'm like, "Oh, so it is this guy." Wow. That's that's very beautiful. You started a studio. You used to record your own music. Yeah. Then what was the decision to move it from the studio into the entertainment side of things to now be bringing artists on board? So part of it was organic, but the other part was something I realized. So one one concept I loved was the ripple effect. Okay? You know how if you throw a stone direct into water, it just falls in straight, but if you angle it right, you can get it to bounce and go further. And I studied and realized that I wanted to like let R&B music, hip-hop music, and everything hit in Ghana. And I wasn't the first to try it. Others have done it before me. We had Dead Buddy, we had we had different artists who had done R&B and hip-hop, but it never stuck. It never became a trend. And I realized the reason is maybe somebody released an R&B song in 1998 then the next one hip-hop song 2001 then so there was too much space in between. So I said okay if I want to start a trend of music then I need a group of likeminded artists so that we can be you know creating a ripple effect. This one releases in January. This one releases in March. This one releases in May. Next thing you see we've created a ripple effect. So it was an experiment. Thank God it worked.

So it was not something you studied for. It was just something you wanted to try. Studied what I studied there. I studied I was studying to be a doctor. So all the things I I do all the things I practice have been selftaught. Wow. From playing the piano to playing the guitar to singing to running a business to finance to record label structure music. Everything has been selftaught. video production, video editing, graphic design, everything has been selftaught. The moment I taught myself one thing and I realized I could teach myself, it was like I just broke the glass and that was it. Wow. That that's interesting. We'll talk about the like I mentioned at the beginning, I wanted to talk about the business of creativity cuz it's something people don't really most creatives are putting out things but they're not getting the money at the end of the day. But before that, so we move from links entertainment to links group. Now you're not just doing entertainment. Yeah, you are doing other things. What other things make up the links group? Okay. So the first thing outside of links entertainment that we created was Taigon creative studios. So Taigon is an allhouse production studio. So from studio rentals to video production to photo shoots to set design, event coverage, event organizing, sometimes setups for events, everything visual. Taigon does. Taigon is actually managed by Baba. Baba is for those who know me, that's my partner. So she manages, she's the creative that handles all that. I just bring in the support.

And then the next thing that we opened is Links Electronics. So, Links Electronics does the headphones, Links Reverb. We have a few more things coming out. We're rolling it one step at a time. Oh, cool down. Don't release the more things will be coming out later as it gets more and more successful. We also have ACN. ACN is African Creatives Network. So, that's a booking agency. So, what we realized is that a lot of creatives are not able to monetize what they have. So we created an agency to help like artists, actors, you know, dancers, anybody to get deals, get brand deals, get gigs, anything, any way to monetize your talent. So we're using our two decades of experience to help the new ones to Yeah. get that. Why don't I get one of the headsets? We'll talk. Okay.

One thing I like is the fact that you moved even like at the beginning you mentioned that plan and throw it away and just you know. I like you move from the studio you come to the entertainment then you come to like the group where the other things connected. In this process what was one thing that was running through your head was there. Um the kind of a kind of fear thinking okay this is not going to work is this the right decision? It never works. I think that's a mistake people make they think what they are doing is going to work nothing ever works you will fail. You will you are guaranteed to fail. So fail fast so that you can learn from the failure and move on from that. These are my companies I have now. There are companies I've opened that have failed horribly. I opened a bar and restaurant, cockpit bar and lounge and it was beautiful. Everybody looking outside loved it because you come there it's packed every day people are jamming you know entertainment. So but I was making losses. I was making severe losses when first I was opened at the mall. M. So the cost of being at the mall it was like I was working for the mall so people come buy food and I carry all the money and go and give it to the mall the month that business dropped small I'm making losses so I moved out to the mall went to because now was too far from me manager started robbing me so I see people coming but the numbers are low it's not making sense I'm like I failed at it so it looked good I love how people always say Richie has the midest touch Everything he touches works. No, it doesn't. It looked good on the outside, but I failed. Then CO came and it failed even bigger because everybody went home. After CO, I tried for a few months to revive it. I took the small money I had left to try and push it in again. People were still not leaving home yet. I said, "Guys, I failed. It's okay. It's it's done. I won't do it again." So, you pushed it away. I push it away. I've had other businesses that I've tried and all. So like the lesson I'm trying to teach is you will fail. So fail fast and keep it going. So when I use something like cockpit as an example, the reason I closed it down like the real reason I closed it down eventually is I realized I didn't have the attention that like the attention I needed to give it to make it succeed. I was never going to be able to give it that attention. when it was in Akimote close to where I lived and I was passing there every single day it was doing better when it moved away then the problem with the managers problem with staff and I would pass there like once or twice a week I realized no I I don't have the attention so this will probably fail for so long it would make me bankrupt before it sees success but whatever you do you will fail when you were learning how to walk you failed over and over again that's why crawling comes before walking. Crawling is just a failed attempt at walking. So get through the failure. A failure is just one new way of learning what not to do. So every time I start a business, I put in my mind this is going to fail. This is not going to go the way I planned. So let me get rid of that and then just move into the success part. The person who actually can call themselves a failure is the person who stops trying. That's the only time you genuinely fail.

Wow. I love that. The problem with when the place was further from you and you had problems with managers and all that. Do you think it's a Ghanian thing or just the specific people that were just not genuine? I think it's a human thing. Okay. It's not a a Ghanaian thing. It's not a It's not an African thing. It's not a white thing. It's a human thing. The truth of the matter is only you are as dedicated to your cause as you need to be. So sometimes you can be very lucky and find someone who is also dedicated to the course and they can handle things for you. So the lesson that I learned from failing in cockpits is now I will never start a business that I can't either supervise 100%. Or I can't find someone who is as passionate about it as I am. Like I mentioned Taigon Baba handles Taigon. So I know that if I need to go do something for Lynx for the next 6 months and I can't pay any attention to Taigon, it's fine because Baba's got this. But if every time I lose attention from Taigon for one month, everything falls down. It will fail. So it's it's a fact of life. You know, passive income, biggest scam ever. There's no such thing as passive income. There's only active income. If you want to make something succeed, you need to give it your attention. You can give it your attention for so long that now it runs on autopilot. But the truth is you will give it attention for a long time. So it's not passive. It's active income until you can relax. Even if you say you're investing in stocks or something like that, bro, you need to be. Yeah. You need to be. Yeah. You need to be checking. You need to be updating and everything. So.

I have a friend in Nigeria that is into fashion. Mhm. And she wanted to start a laundry business. I think she started in Nigeria and she wanted to open a branch in Ghana. And her concern was that she doesn't know anyone in Ghana yet and currently she's in Abuja I think or Lagos and she's doing it over there. She's in Nigeria if she has to even fly she can do that but in Ghana. It might be more hectic to not go and come. So for someone in a position like that who wants to establish maybe in another country. And they in another country what would be the advice? I'm asking this because of what we just talking about in terms of like managing and all that. What would be your advice to this person? So let me go straight into business management. Okay. So there are high leverage task and there are low leverage task. For those who remember from science, a lever is anything that helps you to do more. Right? So a high lever task is a task that helps you to get other tasks done. Okay? A business owner, a CEO, a COO, anybody at the top, your job is to do the high leverage tasks. Okay? and then the people at the bottom do the low leverage tasks. So that's not about importance, it's just about which task can get more things done. So when you are trying to automate something because you can't be physically present, you need to ask yourself what are the high leverage tasks in this like doing the spreadsheet, setting up the systems, you know, putting um finding the right place, finding the right location, hiring the staff, like all these kind of things are high leverage tasks that you the boss needs to do. Then the dayto-day affairs can become low-lever task that they are doing all the time. So anytime you're trying to open a business that needs to be automated, you need to make sure the type of business is a business that has a lot more low-leverage tasks and you can do the high leverage task from far away. So the reason restaurant and bar business is a bad idea for something you want to do automated is the daytoday tasks are high lever. Do you get me? M. So but if you say you're opening a laundry or you are opening a a supermarket you can take your time and do the high leverage task get the right POSOS system get the stocking done do all those things maybe once a month and then the people there only stock buy load go in that case you can automate things and be checking as time goes on but for anything that requires daily editing daily brain brainstorm and all those kind of things. You need to be physically present until you can train people. To do it. For you. Okay.

Thank you for that. You did a video where you spoke about entrepreneurs in a businessman, right? Can you please take me into that? So the difference between an entrepreneur and a businessman. An entrepreneur is somebody who's trying to solve a problem with their unique skills. Okay? So it's like, oh, I've been sitting there. I've seen that people are having this problem and I can find a way to solve it for them. So the business is created out of that. Entrepreneurship is quite difficult because you are innovating. Okay? You are creating systems that don't exist. So it's quite difficult to crack. But when you crack it, it's very very profitable. Because you become unique. Right? You are solving a problem that other people aren't solving. So now everybody will rush to you. Whereas a businessman is somebody who takes a um a solution that already exists. They're not innovating. They're just taking oh this thing is being done is being done well already. I am also going to do it well. Now what that does is you instantly have markets because the system is there it exists. So if let's say I richmen right now decide to create brooms. Brooms already exist. Everybody goes to buy brooms all the time. I just need to market my broom well and you come and buy it. I'm a businessman. I've not solved a unique problem. But if I decide to invent an AI broom that will wake up at 5:00 a.m. and sweep your compound for you and pack itself nicely, then I'm an entrepreneur. So that's the difference. But now you see with the AI broom, I now need to convince people that it actually works. So works more than your traditional one. need to let convince them on why they need to use it. Somebody's thinking, "Ah, do I need to spend all this extra money? I can just wake up at 5 a.m. myself." But once I'm able to do that, everybody comes to me cuz only I make AI brooms. So, you need to choose. If you're not an innovator, if you're not somebody trying to come up with a crazy idea, it's perfectly okay to be a businessman. Everybody makes tissue. I also make tissue. My tissue is three ply instead of two ply. It's it's it's perfectly fine. But if you're an innovator and you can be hungry for a long time and struggle cuz entrepreneurship is really difficult once you get there. Like it took Elon Musk forever to crack Tesla. Once he cracked it, he became the richest man in the world. He almost filed for bankruptcy in 2017 2018 and everybody said, "Oh, please. Your idea is not working." the same way it's taking him forever to crack going to Mars. But if he cracks it, he's the only one who can get you to Mars. You get me?

Yeah. Are entrepreneurs born or they can be made? Oh, everything can be made. And but there's one thing that there's one thing that's going around that I need to correct. Everybody thinks that the only way to become rich right now is to own a business. It's not true. There are other ways to become rich. It's just ownership is what you should be looking for. It's not owning a business. See, there's a difference. Ownership. And there are many ways of owning. You can own stocks. You can own shares. You can own different types of investments and grow your wealth. But you need to own something because when you own then it makes money for you automatically instead of exchanging your time for money, right? But that being said, entrepreneurship can be learned. Being a businessman can be learned. me. I don't have a fixed mindset. I believe anything can be learned. You just need to open your mind to it. You know, entrepreneurship is about solving problems. And I was telling someone just two days ago that solving problems is a skill that you need to practice. Every single day I practice solving problems. I have apps on my phone like I I use the Elevate app. I use a mind training app. Every day I wake up and I solve problems because it's it's regulates my mind, tunes my mind into seeing how to solve problems. So when a real life problem comes, I am able to do it. So anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur, just go around solving problems. That's why I say when you are in a developing country, you deserve to be rich because there are so many problems to solve. So many problems. Don't run away to a developed country. They finish solving their problems right now. They are they are solving problems that don't even need solving. Be here. Be here. So many problems. Like even if you take Ghana, everyone wants to open a business in Ara. Why? Why? We've solved the problems here. There are so many bobati joints in Ara. Go and do bobati in Takra. People will rush for you. Whoever takes this idea and goes to do it, you owe me copyright. I'll take a percentage cuz it was said here.

I like the idea of the word Jesse which is the ownership. So everybody wants to own a business but that's not the only to become rich. Ownership is the thing and you can own anything in any place. I like that very much. Now, there was when we're talking about your wife. I can call her baba right? You mentioned she runs the studio side of things. And I'm young. I'm not married. So my question now is is it a safe thing cuz I'm asking this from a place of doing business with friends sometimes. You know there can be that tension sometimes because you are friends and there's this whole emotional things and all that. How are you playing it safe with your wife if there's issues maybe people arguing at home? How does it that translate in business? Do you get what I'm saying? The thing you have to understand is all relationships are relationships. There are good days there are bad days. There are advantages and there are disadvantages. Life is not a set of rules. So you just maneuver when things come. So the same way that like I can't stand there and pretend and say on a day we are fighting we won't have small attitude towards each other at work but that also means that on a day we are not fighting we have better synergy. Do you get me the truth of the matter is and I read this in books and experienced it in real life truth of the matter is when you find the right partner it elevates you it elevates you because life is about purpose. Finding someone that makes you want to be more pushes you. And when the two of you want to be more for each other, you can achieve wonderful things. So I know that there are the downsides, but there are also massive positives. When you look at some of the big biggest businesses in the world, they've come from such partnerships. Sometimes a partnership is not even in the business, but just having somebody to always have the discussions with helps you. But to each his own. If you go try and wear no work, you not be me. Taco.

You said it already. Oh, thank you so much. Now, let's come to the creative side of things. Another one thing I've realized is it's most creatives are creating from a place of they love it. There's the passion and all that, right? And the moment money comes in sometimes people say it becomes very very rigid and all that. What do you have to say that? Cuz from the from the time you were handling artist at links and all that, most of these people just want to do music. You mentioned that their outfits whatever they have to do that that was being sorted for them right so they just have that creative freedom but if someone is in a position that they have to do some of these little things how would they have to handle it? The goal is excellence. Okay. The goal should always be excellence not money finds excellence okay let me break down how money works I'm giving you gems. Talk to me. This is an episode I was going to do but let me break down how money works money came from the butter system. So initially everybody was exchanging goods. I have oranges, you have pineapples. I give you oranges, you give me pineapples. Then we are happy. Then a problem came where I have oranges, you have apples. I want to give you my oranges for your apples. But you want pineapples. So now I need to go and exchange my orange with somebody's pineapple and then bring the pineapple to exchange for your apple. And it's like it's becoming long. So somebody came up with the idea that okay, gold, look at this. It's shiny. It's bright. It's nice. This is valuable. Everybody wants this. So everybody come for my gold and go and exchange for whatever you want. Therefore, it created the money system with gold being the currency, right? That was the first thing. Then the next thing is how do you keep your gold? So they started opening safe houses. So people will store the gold in a safe house and then they would use a receipt, an IOU, that's where it comes from, to go and pick up the gold. Then now going to the safe house for the gold started being cumbersome. So when I need to give you 10 gold, I will give you my IOU of 10 gold that when you have time, go to the safe house and go and pick it yourself. So the IOU started the first form of paper money. Mhm. So I'm saying all that to just explain that money is still exchanging for value. I still want your pineapple and I'm giving you my oranges. So money follows value. So all those who are chasing money stop chase value. If you are valuable, money will rather chase you. So wherever you are, whatever you do, if you are a creative, the question is, you see, sorry to say this, most creatives are selfish because they are not looking at what value they can give to people. They are looking at what value they can receive. Oh, follow me. Oh, like me. Oh, go and listen to my music. Go and watch my video. It's all about them. But why? Why should I leave my busy schedule and whatever I am doing to come and look at your painting? What value are you giving to me? So when creatives start to shift that mindset to ask themselves how do I give value back to my fans to my audience to my clients to my customers that's when the excellence comes in. So the artist who becomes a great performer gets booked. They don't get booked because they are chasing for bookings. They get booked because when Guinness is doing a show and they are bringing 10,000 people, they want to entertain the 10,000 people. So they will pay the artist who knows how to entertain 10,000 people. You get me? So it's not true that an artist even needs to chase business. It's not true. You just need to give value. And every artist who is struggling with the business side, you need a team. You either join a team or build a team. Now the reason most artists I said artist the reason most creatives don't have teams is once again they're selfish. They don't look at what value can I give to these people to be on my team. So let's say for instance you can't afford a photographer but you need good quality photos. walk up to a photographer and say that this is what I plan on doing blah blah blah blah blah blah blah if you take photos for me I'll give you 5% of all my income for the next 5 years why not the photographer will look at it okay I can take this chance and either make small coins because you don't go far or he may become the biggest talent in the world and I'll make big money people should remember that the man who did the logo for Coca-Cola wasn't paid he just 0.1% of Coca-Cola. Yeah. And the guy that did the Nike logo too. Thank you. Can you imagine how his his descendants are smiling for that free job that he did? So instead of thinking about what you can take from people, creatives need to start thinking about what they can give to people and reduce that ego. Reduce the ego that makes creatives feel like we are the most important people in the world. You know, you have creatives working with a client and maybe a brand is saying, "I need you to post this at that time or do this and I think nah, I'll do this my way because I have my creative." No. What are you giving to the client? The client came to you for a reason. They are trying to reach their market. So, if you are not giving the clients the value that they've asked for, why should they come to you the next time? So once people start look anybody in any industry who switches their mindset from being selfish and thinking about what they can gain to thinking about what they can give will achieve success.

I want us to explain two things and I think you touched a bit on it for value but one thing I know you really like is excellence. What does it mean then from there what is actually value? Let's look at role examples. So I was watching this podcast with Mel Robinson and Emma Greed and they explained it so perfectly. It was such you know golden nuggets. They explained that the difference between excellence and perfectionism because a lot of people try to be perfect. Excellence is internal. Perfection is external. So excellence is doing everything to the best of your ability. Do you get me? I know that I have given it my all. This is the best that I can do. So it's excellent. Perfection is trying to do it to reach a certain standard that has been set by others. So chase excellence not perfectionism. Now the reason excellence is importance is important is you see we keep changing. What I could do 5 years ago was excellent 5 years ago. It's not excellent now cuz I'm much better than. So at that point you are checking with yourself. With myself. Yeah. It's perfectly fine if Okay. So let's say right now I've started a podcast. Okay. I'm not getting the numbers or the quality or the reach of Diary of a CEO but what I am doing is excellent for me. Maybe you can say diary of a CEO is perfect. Fine. That's cool. That's his level. for my level. I gave it my all. I shot with the best equipment I could get. I did the best research that I could do with my limited team and I put out my best. In 10 years time, somebody will go back and watch my old podcast and say, "Hey, Richie's gotten much better off." And that's fine. So, always give your best. That's excellent. That's all you can ask for. And once you keep doing it like that, you grow every day because your best starts to grow. If it is like going to the gym, today you're raising 25 kg. Next day 30, next day 50. But what you don't do is that when you can raise 50, then you raise 20. Then you're not being excellent. You're being mediocre. Yeah. Let's look at value. So value is what others are getting from you. Mhm. You just need to keep that in mind and stop thinking about what you are getting from others. So increase the value. So let's say you invited me on your podcast. Now I have some very intelligent things I could say. I have some nuggets. If I decide that nah, I'll save this ones for my podcast. I haven't given you value. You put out the episode, nobody's watching it because when Richie came, he didn't even say anything. So I I'm of no value to you. So at every point in time you need to ask yourself what are you giving to others? You know the world is a funny place because we are all born selfish but the only way to be successful is to be selfless. It's like you know topsy therapy. So to give value you always just need to look at the other person and ask what can I do for you? That's why most relationships fail actually because everybody's thinking about what they can get out of the relationship and nobody's thinking about what they can give the other. But just look at if every relationship the man asked what can he do today to make his woman happy and the woman asked what can she do today to make her man happy. Both would be happy cuz they're taking care of each other. So it's it's supposed to be like that. If you have a client, if you sell AI brooms, this idea. This idea be like, "Oh, God, you're giving me an idea." If you sell AI brooms, your concept, your mindset should be how is this broom going to make my customers life better? Not how is this broom going to make me money? What value? So, okay, let me think about it. when when my my friend wakes up in the morning, he's not able to sleep because he has to go to work and this and that and that. So maybe if he can do it in the morning setting it this like you think about the person first and that's intrinsically is value.

I love that we spoke about team. And over the years how has your process like when you want to build a team for one particular thing what are you looking for to select people? I'm once again I'm looking for excellence but there's a habit I have I call it um hire fast sack fast sorry higher fast fire fast that sounds nicer so it's it's difficult you know me I do the interview and people can be impressive I remember that my most impressive interview I ever did that person lasted in the company like 6 months she was impressful she looked like chal got it all figured out but in real life it wasn't um certain people are just not a good fit. So, but you need to give people a chance. So, you give people a chance if it doesn't work. And this is one thing I want entrepreneurs to know. Entrepreneurs and employees, it's perfectly fine to part ways. You know, we place too much sadness and baggage and drama around parting ways. It's perfectly fine. Guess what? Everybody will be fine. Your employer will find a new employee. Your employee will find a new employer or open their own business. Everybody will be fine. Sometimes keeping that toxic relationship safe, I'm using a very Jenzi term, but keeping that toxic relationship is even bad for both of you. So, it's fine. The best way to find a team is to fidget. Hire this person. Okay, it's working. Promote the person. It's not working. Okay, sack the person. Hire somebody else. Keep tweaking till you find a team that works.

Lovely. All right. Now, let's pick a creative. Mhm. Let's say the person is, let's use an artist since you've managed a lot and they are managing themselves. How would they move from being an individual to becoming a business, not just a creative person who is just going to perform shows or who's just putting out one YouTube video a week or one a month. So, the thing about being a talent is you are a business. That's one thing most people don't understand. Every talent is a business. I didn't say you're a businessman or you are a business. The same way Coca-Cola is a product. Jay-Z is a product. That's why I said I'm not a businessman. I'm a businessman. So, you need to think like a business and ask yourself what are all the things that a business needs? A business needs finance. A business needs admin. A business needs law. business needs copyrights like there are different different things needs marketing publicity. So you look at all these things and then you start to find people to fill the role. So you intrinsically you are just a product. Best case scenario, some talents can be both the product and the CEO of the business, which means you are capable enough to run yourself as a business. But you need to fill all these roles. Even if you are filling it with yourself or you are filling it with your uncles and your aunties, you need to fill all those roles. So, everyone who wants to get into the creative business needs to look at all the things a business needs and solve those problems for themselves by finding people to do it. You can either do it by contract if you don't have, let's say you don't have the money to pay a lawyer on retainer, but anytime you are coming to get a deal, there's probably going to be payment for that deal. So, um MTN has called you for a show. MTN is paying you for the show. So give it to a lawyer to read through the contract and give them some of that money. Don't be selfish and say this I can read it myself. Give it to a lawyer to prevent so that the day you are late the MTN lawyer doesn't tell you it was in the contract that if you are late we only pay you 50%. Say yeah. I didn't understand the here for here with contracts you somewhere. Okay. So if I understand what you're saying, think of think of yourself as a business, not a business person, a businessman, as a business, an organization and then identify the key things that helps a business move and then hire for that. If you're contracting yourself, your mother, your sister, get all those things. Beautiful.

Now you talk about the mind so much and I mean even your podcast is mastermind podcast. So the mind has a powerful tool. How what what how do you see the mind? Do you want me to give you the politically correct one or the controversial one? Choose. Controversial. Hey, you want controversial? Hey, we are the mind. Okay. Nothing exists outside of your mind. Can you tell me anything that exists outside of your mind? No. Nothing exists out of our mind. You know the first day I understood this in is it GSS1 or GSS 2 when they were teaching us color. And they taught us how color works and they explained that so all color is white light because the light coming from the sun is white light. Now when light hits this object, it reflects into my eye and what my mind can receive from this is what is seen as black and that made me realize wait so maybe this is not black. It's only what my mind can receive from this. So everything I am perceiving is a perception. My perception is my reality. That's why we have colorblind people. We have three different stages. We have those who are color blind. We have those on the normal spectrum and those who actually see more colors than than others because it's all about perception. That's why dogs hear certain sounds that we don't hear cuz they can perceive them. So we actually don't even know what is real. Everything is our mind. I don't know what touch is. It's just when my hand touches this, when my hand sits on this table, my skin sends signals to my brain and my brain tells me that your hand just touched the table. I don't know what touch actually is. I don't know the difference between solid, liquid, gas. All these things are just perceptions that we have created on our own. So all my controversial thing is just basically saying everything only exists in your mind. So if you want to control this world, stop trying to change the world. Stop.

Trying to control the world. Control your mind, 'cause it's all here.

"How do I control your mind?"

"First of all, you need to understand the mind. Most of us don't bother to take time to understand the only tool we're given. We were only born with this, and you don't learn it. You are spending so much time learning other things. You're going to learn about a cockroach, and you can identify what do you call it, different insects by just looking at their legs, but you don't know what is in your mind. Like, how many people understand this definition of color that I just gave? For you to get, let me, let me take you. As you're talking about color today, I'm, hey, I'm giving you gems. I'm going to tell people the real reason why I love black."

"Okay, so everybody is chasing the light, right? So if you understand how color works, you understand that when light comes, certain objects absorb and reflect. So it absorbs when it absorbs all the light. That means it's not reflecting any light away. So a black object, which your eye sees to have no light, is exactly the opposite because the black object has absorbed all the light. Which is why black clothes make you feel hotter because it's absorbed all the energy. So if you want to get closer to the light, follow black. If you want to get farther away from the light, follow white. Anything that is white means it's rejected all the light. Everything that is black means it's welcomed all the light. So black people are the light. So follow black."

"I said black people are the light."

"Yes, we are."

"It's like I throw shade there. But all this comes back to perception. So many Africans are walking around there thinking they are inferior because they've been taught that. So understand your mind. Control your mind."

"Reprogram your mind. Start reading things that will let you understand that maybe I am more powerful than I ever thought. You know, go and read about Mansa Musa. Like, why is it that African history begins in the 1400s? When science has proven that humanity started in Africa and they can go as far back as 30,000 years ago, but African history starts from only about 600 years ago? Yet we can check Julius Caesar from a thousand years ago. We can, like, do you get what I mean? We need to realign with who we are. We need to reprogram our mind, understand what we are capable of. So many people are subpar, they are mediocre, they are not achieving because somebody programmed in their mind that they cannot achieve. The moment they reprogram to believe they are successful, everything will start to change for them, and it's, it's like magic. You'll just start to see the dots being connected. You know, you've been told you can't open a business, you can never make money unless you are doing juju or sakawa or something like that. So, hey, media, I'll be broke for life. The moment you reprogram your mind and you realize, oh, there are ways to be successful. Even by doing more good, I can actually be better than most people and be successful. You, the opportunities will just start opening up. The ideas will start coming, and everything will just work. So, everything happens here first. If you're trying to change someone's life and you don't change their mind first, you're wasting your time. Everything is here."

"You know, one, I think I didn't become a doctor or a lawyer because of one GHS teacher I had."

"I wanted to go to proc. I wanted to go and do science."

"Okay."

"And he looked me dead in the eye and said, 'You will not, you cannot do it.'"

"Jesus. I was probably maybe 15 or 16. See, I went home when I was at the point we were selecting our schools. I went home. I was just younger. I was just confused, like, and I didn't want to sit home. So I'm like, 'Okay, maybe he's right. Maybe if I select proc to do science, 'cause I wanted to be a doctor, maybe I'll not get it. Maybe.' So I started thinking."

"Where should I go?"

"Where should I go? So I went back to him and like, I should go to PJ and when I have a chance, I should go and do business."

"By now, maybe I would have been a doctor. But I mean, this, this..."

"Punch holes in your theory."

"Please go ahead."

"But it's your fault. It's not his fault."

"We'll talk about your book."

"So, here's the thing."

"Okay."

"Human beings self-actualize."

"Mhm."

"So, it's not what he said to you that made you not follow the path. It's the fact that you believed it."

"It's okay."

"Yeah. So, what, what we need to do is we need to start challenging those negative things that people tell us. Don't believe it. Let me ask you a question. If I looked at you right now and I said, 'Your red top is ugly.' Would it affect you?"

"But if I said your black top is ugly, you'll feel some way, right? And it's because you believe what I'm saying. So we actualize. You need to actually believe what is being said to you for it to affect you positively or negatively. So anytime somebody's trying to bring you down, push them aside your mind."

"That's true. What was the inspiration behind your book?"

"Um, I think I've gone through life. I had ideas of what I wrote in my book, but there were parts of me that would blame other people, you know? Oh, the government should have done better. My minister should have done better. Oh, this, my employee didn't do well. This artist. But it reached a point I realized, wait, but if everything, first of all, it's happening in my mind, and secondly, it's only my actions and my thoughts that are bringing results, then everything happening in my life is me. So I don't have anybody to blame. So I just started thinking about it more, researching about it more. And I came to learn more and more that everything that is happening to you is your fault. The good and the bad. Where you are today is a result of the actions and the thoughts that you had from yesterday. So if you want to change where you will be tomorrow, change your thoughts and your actions today. It's that, it's that simple. You know, if, if you think that you don't like your situation, and here's the most powerful thing that people don't understand. If you are the problem, then you are the solution. So all those who are sitting there waiting for someone to come and solve their problem for you, you will sit there and wait."

"Nobody will come."

"Nobody will come. Solve your problem yourself. Sometimes even solving your problem can be asking for help. But maybe somebody's out there who, let me ask you a question. I don't usually do interviews. If you had reached out, you hadn't reached out to me, there's no opportunity for me to have been here. But you reached out to me. So the fact that you took the action is what led to this."

"Yeah."

"Without that action, this would never happen. So you could be sitting there and watching and saying, 'Oh, Richie would make a good guest on my show, but you know, he'll probably not come. He was fine. Let me not try.' Then it ends there. Everything is your responsibility. You make it happen. You succeed, your fault. You fail, your fault. They beat you, your fault. Who told you to not go and learn martial arts?"

"Like they shade me."

"About inviting you to the post. So when I messaged you, I spoke to one, 'cause I mean, I know he does music. So you have a way to reach you. And I spoke to another guy."

"One thousand is back."

"Then I spoke to another guy. I realized you follow him. KBY. I was like, 'Please text Rich and tell him that.' After those two trials, actually, then he came to reply. Like, 'Oh, thank God. If I didn't send that message and I was relying on other people, wouldn't have happened.' So I really, really like that. And by the way, the title of the book is 'Yes, It's Your Fault.'"

"Yes, It's Your Fault."

"So please go and look for a very, very interesting."

"I attack you in the book. So if you, if you are not ready to be attacked, hold on. Hold on. Get vim small. But if you are ready to change your life, pick it up."

"What should, like, what surprised me was when you were on, um, Headless, and he gave you any scenario that I'm walking by the roadside and someone drives by and splashes water on me. You're like, 'It's still your fault.'"

"It's your fault."

"Because he decided to take that road. He decided to, you decided not to buy a car."

"Okay. Let's, let's talk about the media space from when you started until now, talking about entertainment, educational podcast, and what has been like the change? What have you seen so far? The growth and..."

"I think social media and digital media has changed everything. At first, um, the control was in the hands of the few. Some would say that was better, some would say that was worse. It was better because you could create things and excellence could be pushed out there. But it was also worse because it means a few people could determine. So favoritism could be part, you know, if somebody thinks this is quality and it's not, they can still push it out there. So it had its advantages, disadvantages. Now social media means that everybody can reach everywhere. Now, that has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages is, it reduced the cost. Now you can go direct to your consumers without having to go through a middleman. I mean, we're still going through a middleman, Mark Zuckerberg, and things, but it's a little more direct. It's user-based. Somebody can choose to watch you or not. But it also means that everybody can now do it. So there are 10 million people saying the same message. So it's gotten a little saturated. It's lost the value that it, it used to have. So like everything else in life, advantages, disadvantages."

"Okay. One more question on money. We've spoken about the fact that you need to focus on value. The money is going to come. But let's say someone has done all these. They've gotten into the room. Now they have to talk about money with brands, with investors, and all that. How would that conversation usually go? What would you advise a creative who is in this position?"

"First of all, you usually be the one having the conversation."

"Oh, okay."

"Find somebody to have the conversation."

"So there's no situation someone as a creative can have that conver-"

"I don't think so."

"Okay."

"You cannot be objective about yourself. The term objective means it's not about you. You can only be subjective about yourself. So you need someone to be like, if you go and sit in a room right now and you say, 'I want $100,000 for this.' Sorry, I hate using dollars. I want 100,000 cities for this. And then the person you are negotiating with says, 'Oh, please. Your brand is not worth 100,000 cities. I'll give you 10,000.' You see what I just did to your face there? It goes to you. Well, you may walk out of there either not taking the deal or like arguing or something. But if it's somebody representing you, that person can say, 'Oh, I disagree. My client's brand has done this and done that and done that and done that. If you want, you can do your research and this.' They will have a way of handling it. So, never negotiate for yourself. You can never be objective about yourself. It's not, it's not possible. Always have somebody do it for you."

"Okay, then we'll take that same question. Okay."

"For someone that is going to do it on behalf of a creative."

"Okay, so you need to, once again, value. You need to understand that the value that your creative brings to the table."

"Mhm."

"And you can only negotiate based on that value. One thing I hate in that people do a lot in Ghana, I hate it with a passion. They charge people based on how much money the person has and not based on the value that they are bringing. Like, you're talking to a plumber. I hope my plumber is watching this and they move to you. You're talking to a plumber and they say that, 'I will charge you based on the price of the, maybe if you are fixing a WC or fixing a sink, I will charge you based on the price of the sink.' What do you mean? What do you mean based on the price of the sink? The, it's the same process to fix a sink whether it's 500 cities or it's 5,000 cities."

"So because I have worked hard and I've bought a 5,000 city sink, you want to charge me based on my 5,000 city sink? No, charge me based on the work that you are doing, the value that you are bringing. So people make that mistake. So let's say, 'Oh, Richie, I'm a, I'm a podcaster right now. And then, uh, a big brand says they want to advertise on my podcast.' Oh, I look at this one. Oh, they're up and coming. Oh, you give me 500 cities and I'll put you on one episode. Then a multi- this thing multinational comes. 'Hey, you give me $100,000 so I won't show your ad.' That's operating in bad faith. You need to know the value that you are bringing. Calculate that value and charge based on that value. So if somebody is coming to do ads on my podcast, I can estimate that. Okay. So currently, I'm getting about 150,000 views a month. So based on this, if you are placed on my podcast, this is how much you'll get. I can estimate for it to be an amount around this amount. It doesn't matter who you are. It matters the value I am giving. So a lot of people get shot down on deals. A lot of people lose conversations because they charge too much for bigger clients and they lose them. So it's, it's the value. And if you are not being able to charge high, it means you're not giving enough value. So you go back and work on your value so that you can charge more. Me, anytime somebody is not willing to pay me what I know I'm worth, I see it as one of two things. Either I need to increase my value or I need to make my value more evident because maybe he doesn't know the value that I have. So maybe if you're an artist and you are selling out stadiums and you are performing big shows, 40,000 people are chanting your name, maybe nobody's seen it 'cause you are doing it in Tamil and Sun. So put it on your social media. So when the person is now saying, 'Oh, I can't pay you that amount.' Then you send them videos and say, 'Oh, these are my past five shows. This is what I'm able to do. This is how long I perform. This is how the, the people I bring on stage. I give a valuable performance.' If you can afford my rates, that's cool. If, if not, I understand. You part ways."

"This has been a very interesting episode. For, for the creatives watching, musicians, I believe there are musicians watching 'cause they'll see your face on the thumbnail. Sign you for, design you."

"He will not sign you. Artist, you know, dancers, designers, photographers, and all that. What's one advice you give them on this creative journey that they've started?"

"It is really more and more and more about excellence, especially now, because what is happening right now is too many people are chasing the hype. So many people are being creatives because they want to be superstars."

"Because they want to have followers, they want to trend, they want a viral hit. But it's not about that. It's about excellence. And it's so funny. The more you chase excellence, the more those other things that you shouldn't care about start to come. Like, let, let me use the podcast as an example. Numbers were not in my head when I was doing the podcast. I just thought to myself, okay, Richie, you claim you're intelligent. You've been in the industry for a while. If you say you're coming to do a podcast, you can't come halfway, do it to the best of your ability. And if only 10 people are watching, make sure those 10 people are learning something that will benefit their lives. That was my goal. My goal is that anyone who watches my podcast needs to walk away with their life changed. Or if someone invites me to their podcast, I can't leave here and the people watching will be like, 'Oh, yeah, Richie came.' No, I want to see in the comments that, 'Oh, thank you for that. Oh, I was able to like, I want to come back six months later and see somebody say, based on that business idea Richie gave, I started a business and things are going good for me.' Because of that, the numbers came. So the artists, the fashion designers, the creatives, focus on giving us the best. Forget the followers, forget the trends, forget the subscribers, for, forget all those things. That's your back case. Focus on giving us the best. The fame, the hype, the popularity is a byproduct. You know, I miss the good old days when there was the Michael Jacksons and the Boys II Men and the Quillian Trees and the people who were doing the work excellently. These days, anybody takes a mic, sings on TikTok, then they have 1 million views, so they are cool. That's, that's not what it's about. And that's why it's becoming harder and harder for creatives to maintain because they weren't excellent to begin with. When you are trending because your video is funny, how are you going to maintain unless you're a comedian?"

"So be excellent. That is, that is my mantra in life. Be excellent."

"Thank you so much. We have final seven questions."

"Hey."

"Uhhuh."

"I was waiting for that."

"You kept saying, 'And the final question for...' This one. I always like the reaction of the guests. This one, they said it's not rapid fire, but you don't have to think too much about me now. Answer fast. Don't worry."

"Oh God. What's the lesson life had to teach you the hard way?"

"A lesson life taught me failure. I used to say anytime somebody asked me, what's your, um, what's your, your biggest fear or like the thing I'm afraid of the most, it always used to be failure. So life had to teach me that failure was my best friend. So then I started looking for failure. Me, the way I chase failure. Chase it. Be."

"What's a skill everyone should learn, but but most people don't?"

"How to learn."

"If you could time travel, but only once, where or when would you go to?"

"Oo, the future or the past? The future or the past? The future or the past? I'll go to the past. The future is uncertain. So, I would love to go back to Africa before, you know..."

"Everything started."

"Yeah. Before, you know, let's not be controversial. Before some people came to school here."

"I didn't say it. If you weren't doing what you do now, what would you be doing?"

"Uh, I guess I'll be a surgeon."

"Okay."

"You see how heartbroken I was when I said that? That would have been a horrible path. No, no disrespect to surgeons, but..."

"If you could send one message to the entire world, what would it be?"

"Be who you are all the time. Those who matter don't mind. Those who mind don't matter."

"If you could have dinner with your younger self, what would you say to him?"

"Chasing, be strong because you're on the right path. Whatever you did right, whatever you did wrong led to this awesome guy right here. So, thank you."

"If you could invent one thing to make your life easier, what would it be?"

"Don't say the AI broom."

"I actually wouldn't invent anything to make my life easier."

"I like my life being hard. Happiness comes from overcoming difficult situations. So the moment my life becomes easy, I will stop being happy. So..."

"Thank you so much, Richie. This was a lovely episode. I know you have a podcast, but please look my people in the camera and tell them to subscribe."

"Honestly, he's good. I enjoyed this episode. It was unscripted and it was perfect. So please subscribe, watch him, watch me, watch all of us. Slowly, we will change the mindset of Africans so that we can be great again. Thank you guys for watching. His podcast link will be in the description. We'll catch you in the next one. Bye."