How they built Ghana's Biggest Podcast Empire in 8 years: The GCR Story x Cyril Kwadzo | S6 Ep.8

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome to the Sound of Accra Podcast. I got by the name of Adrian Daniels. This is your first time listening. This is a show where we speak of top Ghanian founders, entrepreneurs and creators worldwide with the aim of leaving you behind of meaningful takeaways

[00:00:14] that you can apply in life, business and career. For today's show notes, I'd like you to head over to thesoundofaccra.com.com. That's thesoundofaccra.com.com. For all of today's wisdom, nuggets and references and just some housekeeping guys,

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[00:00:43] check the links below and let us know what you think of today's show and our podcast in general. That's the housekeeping out the way. I want to get straight into the episode.

[00:00:52] I'm joined today by Kojo, aka Zero. He's one of the co-founders and CEO of GCR, aka Gold Coast Reports. This is Ghanian's biggest podcast network. I'm really excited about this one. You may have

[00:01:07] heard of Sinceria Crab. It's the biggest podcast in Ghana and they've got some other fantastic shows on the podcast network. They're really disrupting the space. I like what they're doing from their branding to the quality of the show to the way the show is even mixed and

[00:01:21] mastered. I've always been a fan of their content and it's just more than honored to sit with the CEO and co-founder Kojo. Kojo, thank you for having me. Nice to meet you. Shredios. Nice to meet you, Adrian. Excited for the conversation.

[00:01:35] We had a little brief conversation on set about your name. I kept pronouncing Kwaadzo but I should pronounce Kojo. Tell us where that comment is from. My dad is also a Monday born and he spells Kwaadzo. I'm also a Monday born and I kept the same spell.

[00:01:52] They kept the same spelling for me, I should say. That's interesting. We always have to be different and spell. Yeah, because I had people attempt to pronounce how it's spelled but I see where the confusion comes. It's just regular Kojo. Brilliant. I'm excited. In terms of how we

[00:02:10] met, it's crazy because this weekend we're due or we're supposed to be doing a podcast crash course in Accra in collaboration with AGR. Then I had the idea, I was like, let's get Afri Pods involved

[00:02:24] because at the end of the day, it links back to them using Afri Pods platform which is one of your partners. Of course for those of you who don't know, Afri Pods is Africa's biggest

[00:02:36] podcast hosting platform. We'll leave a link in the description so you guys can sign up. Shout out to Molly if you're watching. Shout out to Kev. Yeah, he's like the head of marketing I think.

[00:02:46] Operations officer. Okay, so CEO whatever you want to call it. So yeah, shout out to Kev, shout out to Molly. We had Molly in the show on the A Conversation series, really good episode. People loved it and they love what they're doing. Afri Pods. So anyway, it's supposed

[00:03:02] to be doing Africa's podcast crash course this weekend and what happened was I decided to get Afri Pods involved because it kind of made sense. And then the next thing I knew on the email threads,

[00:03:14] this guy pops up in the email thread. I'm like, what? Not just GCR but the CEO of the Co-Found. Because it was actually on my mission, this trip to kind of reach out to you guys,

[00:03:28] kind of connect and maybe even connect to the sincere crowd. Like what you guys are doing and see how we can kind of like work together in that sense. And then this guy pops up in the email

[00:03:36] thread and now we're here. So yeah, again, thank you again for allowing me to kind of like use your studios. Let's go straight into a serial. So tell us a little bit about GCR. What does

[00:03:49] GCR do? What does Gold Coast report do? That's always a tricky question. We are podcast network and well in our world of multimedia is not just podcasts and also includes audio and video as well. But we think of ourselves as hopefully telling really exciting stories and we use

[00:04:05] podcast primarily audio to do that. Brilliant. And when you and your Co-Found decided to launch Gold Coast report, was it always the plan to have a network or was it just going to be one

[00:04:16] or two podcasts? Was it supposed to be a radio show? Tell us. It was a series of fortunate events, I would say. So the initial plan was when I returned back, I reached out to

[00:04:28] Donald, my co-founder and the initial plan was I was a huge fan of the daily show and the Colbert report. And the idea was to have a late night type show. So we had put together a proposal

[00:04:40] and we are shared that with DSTV Ghana. Wow. We had nothing back. At that point, I was a huge fan of podcasts as well. So then the suggestion was, hey, why don't we

[00:04:51] record a test episode and see what that sounds like? So I invited Donald all the way to my place, my living room. I remember I took out my phone, it was a Blackberry Z Betty and then

[00:05:01] Barry on the podcast. Wow. No, I mean, Blackberries had the best notification system and keep what I could go on for days about that. But that's not this podcast. I think I believe you because you know how is built, the way it's built, I can definitely

[00:05:14] Yeah, it just makes a much more sense. Control centers. Fantastic. Right. Fantastic. Anyway, so we recorded a test episode and we liked what we had. And then I had the opportunity to use a

[00:05:25] cousin studio back at SpinTech shout out to Fui and we decided to invite some friends. So it really was just we put a call out like, Hey guys, we are trying to do this thing called

[00:05:34] podcasting if you're interested to show up, everybody showed up. So everybody kind of had to be on the show. So we started with three shows after the whistle for sports and the guys,

[00:05:44] we had the other room which touched on gendered issues from a gendered lens. And then we had free on mind, which was our general discussion show. The idea being everybody got to do something and we started off as a network because everybody really showed up.

[00:05:57] Okay, cool. So and everyone kind of like had their own kind of like specialty or niche that they wanted to kind of specialize in and I mean, we kind of, we had our interest. I wouldn't

[00:06:07] say it was like specialty or niche. We really just had our interest. The guys wanted to talk sports. The woman wanted to focus on issues that were important to them that were getting prominence

[00:06:18] in the traditional media. And everybody else was like, I guess I want to have like a round of two and that's how free on mind was born. So it really started from our interests and then grew into the network into what you see as now.

[00:06:31] Brilliant. And I think it works well when let's say you got other people that want to have their own show and they got different interests. That kind of is an advantage for a podcast network because typically when you see podcast networks, everyone has their own show and it's

[00:06:45] usually like a different genre with its true crime, with its sports entertainment, whether it's factual, personal development business, and it kind of works well. Are there any podcast networks out there that you kind of like keep an eye out for that?

[00:06:59] You kind of admire or you listen to? As in what podcast we're listening to? As you consume. You can talk about that as well podcast like you enjoy listening to.

[00:07:08] Oh yeah, I listen to. I mean obviously one, I am a fan of the medium so if I wasn't doing GCRI, so would be listening to podcast and I do listen to a fair number of shows,

[00:07:19] a couple of shows I've been listening to for like some might almost be a decade now. There's The Low Show, there's a low podcast here, the low podcast, it's a basketball podcast. I use that to follow because I don't always watch the NBA games, so that's a good

[00:07:34] way to catch up with what's going on. There is Pivot, it's a business tech podcast, yeah huge fan of Cara and Scott, so that's always fun. And obviously there's all the shows on GCRI

[00:07:45] that I also enjoy and also kind of also have to listen to make sure we are putting on good content. So after The Whistle, Sex and Insanity, Sincerely Our Cry, Is It Crack, I Could Keep Going, Herpins and Straight, yeah all of them.

[00:08:00] Fantastic, one thing I really admire is the branding and just the names, the branding and just how you kind of go about packaging your podcast, I think it's fantastic. I want to dive into that a little bit deeper but before we get to that,

[00:08:13] just tell us a little bit about kind of like yourself, like how did you, like what was your background that's kind of like helped you to kind of get into the podcast phase? That's a tricky one because I think it probably was just a

[00:08:25] combination of interest and wanting to not have GCRI as an idea to die, because like I said we started off wanting to be a late night type TV show and we had no bites and we didn't own a TV station.

[00:08:40] So the accessible thing that we had access to was studio space. We couldn't be a radio station but we could be a podcast, so we did that. In terms of my interests or background, you mean what I studied because I really just came into it.

[00:08:57] Like kind of like maybe if you worked before? In media no, nothing. Nothing I did really was related to media. It's amazing. Yeah, it really was just, this is something I've been listening to as a fan.

[00:09:09] It's a space that, it felt accessible, it felt like we could also be in that space and the question was why not? And everybody said yes, so really why not? I think that's the one thing you can take into the space is being a consumer yourself for how

[00:09:24] he is. Because the first podcast I ever listened to, if it was an religious one, it was I think 2010. I got my first iPhone which is the iPhone 3JS. I saw podcasts. The app. I saw a podcast was on iTunes. That's how I discovered it

[00:09:40] and then before you know it, I just started to consume it. So that kind of helped me to get into the space. I think podcasts have also come from backgrounds of being heavy consumers

[00:09:49] themselves and they just get eye and days in terms of how they can kind of go and get their own. Yeah, because it always felt like you listen and it's like wait, I could do this or

[00:09:58] I won't talk about this but then I don't see either my voice or I don't see topics or issues that I care about being spoken about and then the next step is maybe I just do it. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a popular way some podcast

[00:10:13] stars feel, oh there's no one less talking about this. Same with me, right? With the terms of gardening, entrepreneurs and creators. I was like, there's no one talking about this. There's only just dedicates to this. There's like lots of content on YouTube,

[00:10:24] like random interviews and everything. But there's no dedicated platform. This is how the sound of a cry was born. So I can kind of relate to you. Yeah. All right, let's keep this conversation going. So in terms of the Gold Coast report,

[00:10:39] tell us some of the key shows that you have on the show. Of course, the Cereal Crab. So Cereal Crab gives a shout out mainly because it is the number one show in Ghana. So a shout out

[00:10:50] to the team Joseph and Kwame. On the network we also have other creators who are also equally putting in the work. So there's Free on Mind that's hosted by Tatas and One Love. There's Issa Crack, that's Kelly and Dinam. There's Happens and Straits. There's Baba and Queen.

[00:11:06] We also have After the Whistle, there's Kawawa, there's Smiley, there's Kyo, there's Squary, there's Van Gela, there's Crack. That's a squad for the sports show. How many hosts altogether? So everything we're probably pushing close to 2025.

[00:11:24] I know it's, we also have been very intentional or perhaps welcoming in terms of just making sure that people are able to work towards the shows they want to create because like we said

[00:11:38] early on you're listening to podcasts and if you aren't finding the thing you care about being spoken or discussed then next impulse is how do I create that so how do I become

[00:11:49] that show that I don't want to see and for us at GCR we've been, we hope we are intentional in being the space that people can actually build stuff like that. Yeah I think what you've done is really

[00:12:00] remarkable because coming from someone that has not necessarily immediate backgrounds or technology per se background and but I mean doing what you've brought into the space is your list of consumer experience and listening to podcasts. How would you, how have you got to the point

[00:12:15] because the production element is fantastic like but the quality is spot on you know you understand there's something I want to you know aspire to. How would you say that you've developed that air

[00:12:25] where the production, you've been able to get the podcast to such a high network, the production such a high level at least audio perspective? I don't watch that video too. Yeah especially the audio's phenomenal. How did you develop that air and that? I mean it's fantastic. Give

[00:12:40] yourself a long enough time. I would say if you go back to our early shows and you listen to our episode one yeah you probably see that these guys are just mucking around in terms of we just yeah

[00:12:53] yeah just have to press record and then try to figure it out but then I think for my thing for us being in the space it was important that we represented and presented content that we would

[00:13:05] also want to consume which is why it's important because one I was a fan of the medium if I don't see myself listening to the show then what am I doing? Yeah you understand so things like

[00:13:16] improving our audio quality, things like being intentional when it comes to structuring episodes, things like okay how do we get intentional planning like stuff like that came naturally because it was important to get the show to be in the best possible position. It could be and the

[00:13:32] only way we could do that was by making sure our audio recording is better, making sure our edits and it's better making sure our planning pre-posts all of that is working well so it really

[00:13:43] is just driving towards the best possible versions of our shows and we don't think we are there yet it's like whatever progress we can make whatever incremental step we can take we always try to do that. It's interesting because I posted something to my whatsapp status yesterday talking

[00:13:58] about incremental progress and also the other day Mr Bees I think I heard quite a bit of Mr Bees saying I think your first 100 YouTube videos or something like that once you've done the first

[00:14:09] 100 YouTube videos look at ways where you can improve that episode by 1% every single time so I really admire what you're doing you know you'll be looking at ways you can constantly improve and when you constantly improve little by little it just takes you to where you're

[00:14:24] everything's just excellent. Yeah and also it's important to also have the team that also buys in because you could want to improve as much as you want but then if everybody doesn't buy in then becomes a much more difficult process so just everybody understanding that this is

[00:14:40] something that we are working towards either the shows themselves or the production team or everybody else that helps us out with events because it's all driving towards a goal and the goal is how can we be better than we were last time. Yeah absolutely that's very insightful

[00:14:55] okay cool I mean you mentioned you know having a team is important let's segue over there Kojo so of course you mentioned 25 people you know in terms of that's host right. So that's host

[00:15:08] yeah and then you got all the shows around that as well in terms of like maybe designers editors etc. Yeah we've got to have our system in place structured because of course for things

[00:15:18] to kind of like run smooth and for things to work I mean what does that look like I'm off in. I would like that system to be better that's all I would say no but we do have

[00:15:30] we do have there's a method to our madness presently so if you think of it think of all our shows as essentially having their own little silos so if this is a show this is the audio

[00:15:40] editor assigned this is the graphic designer assigned and this is it's a video buffer and editor this is the person assigned so that is structured per every show where it probably can get cleaner it's probably the communication and just to make sure things are a bit more snappier

[00:15:57] because once you have that many people things tend to get a bit ah what's happening but other than that I think we sort of got this is a show these are the people working on it now it's just

[00:16:09] about making sure communications are clear and everybody knows exactly what they need to do when things are due because that's also a big one and things are pushed out on time and on schedule. Yeah it's time, it's resources, it's being promised, it's the quality, it's the delivery,

[00:16:25] so many moving parts with podcast that's why I always tell people like this podcasting you can't just get up and do it especially if you want to be excellent there's so many moving parts

[00:16:33] and when you kind of neglect some of those parts that's many things that can get messy. Of course to get to where you are today um it's been quite a bit of work

[00:16:43] um what would you say is um some of the challenges that you've had in terms of coming up? Santa's all coming up. Any any has there been any kind of low moments that you've had?

[00:16:56] Santa's how long has it been running for again? So we are in year eight if I believe yeah I think right year eight. I know right no but in terms of low moments it's always going to be

[00:17:09] low moments to be very honest we've had episodes where the mic was in turn on we've had episodes where guests didn't show up there's been yeah everything that probably could have happened has happened

[00:17:22] and I think or I hope I've gotten better at just understanding and appreciating that in as much as in that moment it feels like the lowest possible point. I don't know if you watch

[00:17:32] The Simpsons but this is where Homer goes yet this is the worst moment of your life yet it can't get worse so that contrasts does help and as much as a low point there's a much lower

[00:17:44] points waiting for you so in the grand scheme of things this really isn't that bad so yeah I don't know that answers your question but that's perfect that will do for sure so I mean I've

[00:17:56] experienced that as well you know like not turning the mic on I mean I've had I mean turning the mic on that's not been an issue it's more like not turning the video camera on so I had one

[00:18:05] guess who is kind of image conscious and she realized the camera was turned on you know I was like sorry but I had a backup ipad recording pointed at her so it took some clips from that

[00:18:15] but yeah can relate to the low moments and then yeah we've had like power go out it's like it's everything that's happened during the season man yeah the light went off and then the generator

[00:18:25] went off and then and then I had to use batteries to kind of finish the recording exactly yeah so I mean let's let's go actually what's the channel mean there's doing the podcast

[00:18:35] it's having a podcast but it's having a podcast in Africa which I was a bit about like because it's a different culture Africans or Ghanis but say I mean they're more used to maybe more

[00:18:45] traditional media maybe TV you know okay of course people are now more client to social media Instagrams YouTube and stuff um how would you take how would you see Ghani's take to

[00:18:56] podcasting in terms of from a consumer perspective so I am perhaps a bit more bullish on podcasting I mean kind of have to be if you're being in space right it wouldn't make sense but I remember one

[00:19:09] with the very first decks or proposals that we worked on the phrase I had in there was that ours is an oral tradition and for me everything our culture speaks to it's oral we tell stories

[00:19:23] we share information by laughing by personal and appropriate all of that is oral and what is podcast if not recorded it's in our blood yeah it's really now just about figuring out or developing

[00:19:38] content that speaks to more people that's really what it is because I think our growth or our sustained growth is testament to the fact that when people discover us when they tune in

[00:19:49] they like what they hear so there's definitely an audience in the market out there it really is just going to be of one a function of time more people discovering us and then also creating

[00:19:59] contents that also speaks to more people at the same time so is that balance that we keep trying to find yeah again there's just so many moving parts you know again people to discover

[00:20:09] you a visibility marketing is just the answer I mean we'll kind of move into kind of the business side of things very shortly okay one thing I love about um Gold Coast report is the

[00:20:19] live shows aspect I think you guys have got that spot on yeah like we've since Syria, Krah you know how they do the live shows and then you kind of like got maybe part maybe brand

[00:20:29] partnerships and then maybe Spotify this your stuff with you guys just tell me talk us briefly about like the live shows you kind of like you know what what the model is behind that

[00:20:38] having like are you are you purposeful about the live shows I'm going to do maybe one or two live shows a month for it's just whenever you know you feel like oh let's just do a live show

[00:20:46] because I'm in a lazy business right so you want to kind of like make it yeah it's definitely it's definitely purposeful just because there's some planning required so you can just like show

[00:20:55] up and run a live show but I want to say back in 2017-2018 I want to I would go on record and probably ask someone to challenge you if you're wrong but I I feel like we had the first

[00:21:09] live show if not in Africa I can say West Africa this was back in 2017 and for us it was really that organic need where we had people responding to us getting in touch with us and just going like

[00:21:21] we would just love to see you guys you know and then I know you mentioned we'll talk about the business side as well but where we are in terms of brands and engaging with our audience

[00:21:33] it was important for them to have a snapshot to see what our audience is because I can send you a deck that tells you my listenership and that gives you a profile but it's more impactful when

[00:21:44] you see what they look like so back in 2018 yeah back in 2018 we had the first live show GCR live our front back okay and it was it was amazing like after we were done people stayed wow and we

[00:22:02] were confused because we are just planned for we'll have a conversation and everybody leaves but then everybody stayed and I think for us that was the LA that was the LA England that always not just an audience it's actually a community as well because people came

[00:22:16] total strangers but then they liked the person that they met in the space enough to want to be there and hang out with them okay our initial plan was to do the same thing again

[00:22:28] and then COVID happened so that the real plans but it also gave us a much longer runway to think because after outside was opened yeah what we ended up launching was a live podcast

[00:22:43] events mosaic and with mosaic we're a bit more intentional in that it wasn't just a live conversation but then we also made sure to also include a stage to give access to imagine artists as well

[00:22:54] because now we think of mosaic as an audio festival and for us everything related to audio we are looking to bring as part of mosaic last year we added a stand-up comedy set to it as well

[00:23:07] so is that kind of growth in terms of one being intentional to look in our whether community is interested in and then for us as capacities increase how do we improve the product offering

[00:23:19] that we also serve into our audience slash community as well I love the model and love how you've evolved and how you just like diversified the product offering as well like live comedy show I'm looking forward to when you guys start that I think um there's one at

[00:23:32] end of the month yeah February yeah so I'm looking forward to coming down hopefully we all die laughing oh I want to stay alive but I'll do that by then um let me double tap in COVID because you mentioned

[00:23:44] COVID I mean it's probably uh it's a recurring narrative for so many guests I've had on the show um what was that like navigating COVID especially of course you're on the podcast and space but you're in a business of things as well yeah is that like it was

[00:24:00] well I think for me personally it gave me a time it gave me a chance to slow down actually because I think up until that point it really had been a whole lot of

[00:24:13] on and on and on when we first started GCR in terms of the edits and that was that was mostly on me and then as we grew the admin aspects also grew as well so striking that balance

[00:24:27] there was no balance I should say it was just like we're doing it we're doing it all COVID gave a chance to just sort of well if you're trying to grow in this in this sense doesn't make sense to

[00:24:39] how you do all this editing and do all this as well so it gave me a chance to work out okay what do we offload what do we need helping what do we get support with it also gave us a chance to also

[00:24:50] test our remote recording which shout out to the ACW boys they now record exclusively remote is that that's one of the shows that's a sports show yeah just because then we had you know platforms like Riverside and Zencast that they popped up Riverside is fantastic yeah

[00:25:04] they just popped up during that period and it gave us a chance to also just be a bit more intentional in terms of in as much as we have studio space yeah we shouldn't necessarily

[00:25:14] limit our guests to the people who are right in front of us in terms of physically so COVID really was just like a pause moment we got to see where GCR where everything was see where the Ghana

[00:25:25] podcast and landscape was looking like and then sort of charts the direction we wanted to go in because we find ourselves in this honestly tricky but perhaps this unique space where there's a bit

[00:25:39] of dictating given direction in terms of what we are doing but then also by virtue of being the ones ahead we're also learning and discovering at the same time so how do we make sure that we are

[00:25:55] learning the lessons we should we are sharing the information with everybody else in this space and we are hopefully being good enough leaders so that everybody that's interested in podcasting

[00:26:05] can just go okay this is what these guys are doing these are the good bits this is what I like to replicate because for us we really do want to grow they cause the STEM end space and yeah COVID

[00:26:14] allowed us to do a lot more planning thinking like structure mosaic for what we wanted to be our shows the directions you want to go brands how do you want to approach them all of that

[00:26:24] eh it gave us it gave us a much needed pause it turned out yeah explain to audience mosaic so of course you guys have other kind of ventures that you have so in terms of supporting you know

[00:26:37] people that want to get into this space just tell us a bit more about that about mosaic day yeah because I know you have something like the lags as well oh yes so so mosaic is our live podcast

[00:26:47] events we use that to cap the end of our calendar so we typically run end of February March through to November it's quite a long year so mosaic allows us to just be like all right

[00:26:57] we are done wrap up we'll catch you guys the next year and that's always fun to plan and look forward to the program you mentioned our gcr labs that was us being intentional in terms of trying to

[00:27:09] grow the space and again I'm in love with the first words that we had when we thought about gcr labs which was to be the resource that we hope we had because I'll be very honest it has been

[00:27:22] learning by trial combat and fire in terms of what we need to do and what we should be doing because all the last couple of years it's quite easy to look up resources or what you should do

[00:27:35] in terms of podcasting but as you mentioned alluded to earlier on it's is different because by virtue of being on this lovely continent of ours and being in Ghana there are certain things that doesn't translate as well to give a very simple one file size everybody recommends this

[00:27:54] or recording just make sure you have your file size probably in dot wave or if you're exporting into mp3 highest possible quality setting yeah well that could be a problem if the listeners

[00:28:06] are a bit states are conscious 100 so someone listens to your show they like your show but then they realize every time you listen they down 200 or 300 or 500 megabytes what's that about you understand they will stop listening to you or they'll only listen to you when they have access

[00:28:22] to either good or free wi-fi so these were things where we had to early on find the balance between okay what's uh what's a good show length what's a good compromise on audio quality

[00:28:34] so lots of optimization as you're doing along lots of optimization lots of this isn't working that's how we figure it out okay people are responding to this this how we reach them yeah

[00:28:44] yeah all of that it's like real-time testing and application amazing so you allow the beta to kind of inform what decisions and actions you take just to include as much yeah as much as we can rely

[00:28:55] on the data we rely on the i guess you call it anecdotes like listeners or audience who are able to reach us and tell us what their experience is yeah because also a reality is in

[00:29:06] doing this for so long you can really get tunneled vision in terms of okay this is why it wants us to do do do and sometimes you might have the best of ideas but then again your least our listeners

[00:29:20] are key parts of the process and we only really ever hear from them towards the end after the product is out which is a bit can help to wrap your head around it so it has to be that

[00:29:31] intentional loop system where we know that we are planning this amazing episode or this amazing event but at the end the listener lets us know whether we did a good job and that has to be facted

[00:29:42] in for the next one yeah that's brilliant um i think it's quite key as a podcast and to look at the data again it's not people can get caught up in a tunnel vision just thinking they know what they

[00:29:54] want but it's really important to understand if you try and swim against what the market wants and go against you you have to understand what the market wants by looking at the data looking

[00:30:05] the insights and using that to inform me where to go i think that's really important and since you've guys been around for quite a while now has there been any kind of very interesting insights that

[00:30:14] you kind of stumble upon and you've been like oh that's quite interesting maybe things are for oh eight percent our listeners are female or oh hundred percent of our listeners are all

[00:30:24] all like fanice i don't know well i don't think we have this is jumping out to the type surprising but i would say so sex and sanity is a show on our network and the data shows is

[00:30:41] probably more probably is second only to sincere yacra and the number of times that people probably publicly swear they don't listen or just because in terms of you see the social media

[00:30:52] engagement and now people react to content that we post people listen to that a lot so it's one of those things where it's like oh y'all are listening listening but not really being public

[00:31:02] with it but yeah that's probably a fun little interesting when it comes to the data yeah interesting yeah i mean it's just interesting with like podcasting you know some people can quietly listen to podcasts you may never know but what's great about is that there's such a

[00:31:19] level of intimacy that's built when people listen to a podcast especially on the podcast published in regular basis as well you build that connection audience and i think that's the fantastic thing that you guys have the live shows you're constantly doing it and it just allows

[00:31:33] the audience to come out and just kind of yeah you know join and you i'm guessing i love you that come up with a live shows they're like since they're like you know podcasts

[00:31:42] unless there's an actual podcast or the gcr network or not necessarily they're gonna come out and just have a good time i mean we've had like a good mix we have people who obviously show up

[00:31:52] because it's the podcast they listen to so they want to see the host so they want to be apart then we have people who also show up because our friend has dragged them along and for mosaic as well

[00:32:03] like you saw this weird no weird you saw this unique experience where people are showing up because over the years we've hopefully done a good job of creating an experience that people

[00:32:15] enjoy and like so to touch on that a bit one thing we are very intentional about is everybody who comes in is as much as possible treated equally so we don't necessarily no we don't

[00:32:26] have VIP tickets we don't have like this for the cool kids type thing you know it's like everybody comes in and we're all here for this one reason and we're all here to have fun and it's good to

[00:32:37] have spaces like that because then even if you're a hardcore podcast fan or you are not you still hopefully enjoying the experience for what it is and i think people also tend to

[00:32:48] enjoy that as well so we've had a friend of our people who probably all listen to our podcast as much as they we would want them to but they will show up to our events because when they come

[00:32:57] it's like ah it's a good time might as well yeah that's good it's smiling in your pocket you know they come into the shirt and you're mad at it yeah yeah um brilliant i mean it's just quite

[00:33:08] interesting just to hear like the garner podcast lance podcasting landscape as well i think it's growing would you say it's growing it's it's making progress compared to other countries do

[00:33:16] you kind of look at that in terms of out in just from an african perspective like the podcast like how how you guys or how the podcast of space in varn is doing compared to other african countries do

[00:33:27] you kind of pay attention to that we just focused on what you guys are doing and let everything take care of itself we definitely pay attention to other african countries because one by virtue

[00:33:36] of being a digital product it just means that our audience in as much as we are hq our crowd audience is the rest of the world so we are building planning promoting for a global audience and

[00:33:50] by virtue of being african we also do have a fair number of our listenership at least across countries coming from africa as well now as to how garner is doing compared to everybody else

[00:34:02] i would say i would say we're doing pretty well i say pretty well because you also do want to factor in the the reality that garner for as much noise as we make we really quite a small

[00:34:13] country true you understand so when you look across the continent and then you see the leaders when it comes to perhaps numbers you have your kengar you have your south africa you have your nigeria

[00:34:25] you have egypt tanzania actually those are huge populations so they are coming in with the whole swath of their population either having access to internet smartphones and all of that so there's already that captive slash ready audience yeah we are working not with a smaller number but

[00:34:44] proportionately yeah we're coming to the smaller population it means we're going to the smaller number but i think if we could go pound for pound i think ganyan podcast are showing that we can

[00:34:56] also be right up there with the best and that's something that i think two years ago the Spotify africa podcast ground showed that when you think about the best podcast on the continent seciaria

[00:35:08] cry is right there with all of them so at the end of the day it's all about putting out best quality content and not just gcr but then i think the ecosystem is all working

[00:35:19] we're moving towards that it's beautiful um this is so quickly about like brands and partnerships and things like that um i mean of course spot for africa that you know there's some stuff with gcr

[00:35:29] i've seen seciaria cry guys in the news yeah once or twice it's pretty great it's pretty brilliant so in terms of like the pr and the brands that you guys are you know do you guys have obtained

[00:35:39] or work with um how do you think that's that's come about it's people that reached out to you or like reached out maybe it's a combination that reached out to them and you know they

[00:35:47] say yes we want a future year how has that kind of come about for us i think the best i said i think the best was the right word the best situation has been us reaching out or them reaching out

[00:36:02] and they're being each our interest because when it's a brand and our goals are aligned and also our values are aligned we've realized that the conversation becomes much easier it

[00:36:13] becomes much okay we all want to do this we know we're on the same page it's now about just you know the bill we're just fussy about this that that and then we get it over the line so

[00:36:23] we do spend a fair bit time self reaching out to brands and partners that we like to work with and sometimes it's a slog like there are conversations that we've had for two years

[00:36:34] going on you know it's like uh you know kind of ready it's like i bet i'll hit you up next quarter sustain the conversation we sustain the relationship because one thing about us with gcr is

[00:36:46] we also realize that there's intersection between what we want to do and what other people so partners brands even our hosts our team want to do you know so like let's say we take you adrian

[00:36:59] we would want to work with you but it would have to be something that you are passionate about and then we'll have to be something that is also aligned with what we are trying to do

[00:37:08] so it's that intersection that we want to work with you at otherwise i could tell you other great projects that we want to do but if it's not moving you it's not moving you and

[00:37:17] that's completely fair it's just that it gets really tricky to find out what's there okay this is what sparks you and this is what sparks us but that's why that constant communication and dialogue

[00:37:28] has proved useful to us because as we are talking we are finding out more about each other and then we're also learning oh this is what you want to do or this something like oh snap

[00:37:37] we've had this in the back pockets and i think it's something that you would enjoy and then damn it works that's brilliant what do you say has been i mean doing this for eight years you know

[00:37:47] gets into veterans that's it's been some of the highlights you know is there has been any like memorable moments that you've had on this journey with you and your co-founder and the team

[00:37:57] yeah i think that's that's that standout one that gcr that first gcr life was a highlight just because it was like one damn all this people actually showed up for us and do you

[00:38:08] remember the turnout roughly was it was it was a huge and it was more intimate kind of it was more intimate you probably go like i want to say 50 60 people yeah you know it wasn't bad like for the

[00:38:19] space we had we filled out the space that's it yeah it was those yeah yeah and i just remember it's like it's done why they're still here yeah because we wanted to go i remember we plan to go

[00:38:30] out we plan to leave after to go party but we stayed longer because people were still there like just to show you we weren't not very confident we just didn't think people want to stay so that was

[00:38:40] definitely a highlight i mentioned at the start that when we started we were recording at a at a spentex studio we we moved out of that spentex studio two years into our run into a nice little

[00:38:54] cube space that we called the cube and we've kept that name for our studio spaces since then we've had two moves and we are now new space all of those having highlights um having our first space

[00:39:06] and that was at the speaker tea house they be loaned us their little warehouse to use for us to use space having our first place was a really big deal for us because then it gave us control over

[00:39:18] schedule yeah it gave us a bit more intentionality as to how we want things to look how we want things to sound how we want things to feel and what we want to put out it was a was a final

[00:39:28] piece to we're making everything work and is on our own time we moved to our office space in osu! the year after we stayed there for a year and now we are now new space so all of those have

[00:39:40] been highlights the Spotify news was definitely a highlight as well because there was validation to that because that was us putting in the work and in as much as we felt assured of the

[00:39:54] quality of work that we were doing and the SA team was putting in it really is great to also know that it's not just a feeling it's not just what you are telling yourself or what the team is reinforcing

[00:40:05] but then an external external source that has no stakes in the matter came in and said yeah yeah we think this is good too you know so that was also extremely validating our mosaic

[00:40:20] events when we rewrecked it seeing what that 10-up has been seeing what that partnership has been the partners that just completely bought into what we were selling because again there isn't any events that was just backed by podcasting one podcasting is this really growing industry

[00:40:40] space in Ghana right now and we were saying off the back of that we think we can have a successful event you go I mean so then buying into that then believing and then asking what that

[00:40:52] is those are also highlights as well and there are all these other individual ones where you see is this little thing where you see host take a bit more ownership when you also feel and see

[00:41:04] that growth level also with the production team as well when you see things going on it they necessarily have to be a part of that process those are highlights I really do cherish because then there's a sustainability to what we are building and I look back to when

[00:41:20] we first started and I really had to be a part of everything the goal really is to have our shows our team be able to essentially create their vision what they want within gcr and just

[00:41:37] have gcr be that space that hopefully amplifies and builds and gets everybody super charged up that's incredible and I feel like so all of the hosts did they come here to or did they come to

[00:41:48] the studio space to record other than our ATW boys who record mostly yeah they are top one ones everybody comes through yeah that's brilliant and that will lead to kind of control the process

[00:42:01] yeah I mean we have a consistent sound quality exactly we have a booking schedule shout out to kofi who should be managing that soon so there are ways to you know it's one of those things where

[00:42:14] this is very much a creative endeavor like we are doing this because you are passionate and this is the thing that makes our hearts beat but we also build in the business and business comes

[00:42:23] with systems and processes and as unsexy or boring as those things sound they are important because they help us build that framework that foundation that makes it easy for creativity

[00:42:35] to just you know jump as high as you go because you know that there's that firm foundation for you when you land back up so that's been that balance at gcr we've been looking to strike how do we

[00:42:45] how do we build this process so that our team can be as creative go wild go apeshift go nuts but we need to first have that system and allow you to to be the fullest version of

[00:42:58] yourself creatively so is that balance is that effort that we are trying to figure out but it's been fun yeah great it um it must feel like a record label sometimes

[00:43:09] do you get that feeling I mean I get that feeling I mean if you if those are podcast networks it's like running a record label in a way like a modern day record label

[00:43:17] does it feel like that it does that's a good analogy I yeah because there's also this really insane intense element of human connection to it as well because everybody's motivated differently everybody sparks differently and everybody is also trying to do

[00:43:38] different things with the outshows so having that constant engagement having that checking in yeah you're right it's like you're managing we are managing talents and we're trying to help talent be the best possible version that it can be and it really can be that it can be that

[00:43:56] incredible it's been such an incredible journey you guys have had really enjoyed this conversation kodja um what tips would you give to people that want to kind of move into the space podcasting in general or maybe podcasting in Africa the so we've you've had a friend

[00:44:13] number of these conversations you know and if I had to say why I think we've probably lasted as long as we've had one we're crazy two it's also been consistency when we first started

[00:44:27] for our first two years we recorded our schedule was recorded on saturday I edited everything saturday evening to sunday episode went on monday tuesday wednesday for two years straight and we were doing listenership starting with 50 and then it was growing to 150 that about so

[00:44:46] for the first two years we just we just pumped it out like it really wasn't about the numbers aren't growing it was just this was a thing that we wanted out and come hell or high water

[00:44:59] we're going to make sure the episodes came out so that consistency it helped us we made mistakes you learn from them quickly we did like a speed run nothing beats consistency because that's how you get better that's how you get feedback that's how you see where your blind

[00:45:17] spots are that's how you see what you would like to change and move towards so one be definitely crazy if you're trying to get into the podcasting space because there's a whole lot

[00:45:26] that would not make sense to everybody else on the outside because a reality is this is very much a new space at least in Ghana right now we are carving out we are trying to make things

[00:45:39] work in terms of it's being an operational business so there's that but consistency at least puts you in the conversation or at least gets you towards whatever your goal is with your show absolutely I can totally relate you know going on almost 200 episodes I can tell you

[00:45:57] and because it's definitely key it's one of the first pieces of us I get to anyone who rocks yeah advice sort of definitely consistency before we go Kaja you know we just talked about you know the moving parts of podcasting consistency etc of course like any business

[00:46:18] you know one's a like blood and needs to get lights on he's like yeah you don't have to share all the ends of that out so everything just tell us you know in terms of gc i like

[00:46:28] what are kind of like similar to revenue streams that you guys have to kind of like keep the business going keep the podcast network going on that end I don't think we're doing anything special from most businesses so the typical podcast model there's advertising so advertising on the

[00:46:42] podcast LPMs and all of that so host red ads we have sponsorships so far as you're able to extend that also to our events and all of that and then partnerships as well so that's

[00:46:52] also a good way to get some some change in and then with our events we have get sales tickets match sales all of that all of that all of that but again with any business that's being built

[00:47:03] the first couple of years it's really going to be internal funds that you're able to raise generate and mobilize because unless you have a really really cool idea for a business that everybody just buys into immediately so the first couple of years if not months you would

[00:47:19] have to be the one to figure out how to keep the lights on so there's always that balance where it's like okay how do I keep overhead slow but then make sure that the business has enough time to

[00:47:29] enough runway to see what happens in three months to see where we are yeah so that's you know that's it for our money yeah our money stuff that's brilliant it's good to hear that there's multiple revenue troops coming in because you know you know in Ghana the

[00:47:42] dumb soul when a light goes off you feel it harder yeah so and when there's no money you feel it harder in Africa than anywhere else so yeah it's pretty impressive yeah and

[00:47:52] you just have to be aggressive and coming up with new not new but ways to make monetization work absolutely absolutely brilliant well this has been a fantastic conversation where can everybody find Gold Coast report GCO and this is it was Rose and connective you and

[00:48:11] and GCO so we have a website and funny story we kind of had to build our own internal website because when we started people people were deleting the Apple podcast app from their phones

[00:48:24] wow because that was like an extra 15 megabytes and yeah if they weren't using that shit like take it off because that could be a photo or a video you know so we kind of had to quickly

[00:48:35] how do we get people to listen to us without them feeling like they need to download an app or keep an app that they would never use so listen to gcr.com that's where we have all our shows

[00:48:46] i events tickets everything is all on there so it's just like a handy link that we're able to have our digital presence and everything and everything that we put out so once you go on

[00:48:57] there you navigate you see the different shows social media handles personal handles all of that it's on there yeah I guess it's a real challenge sometimes in Africa like the data especially because the digital adoption is not quite there like like your facebook lights now even uber lights

[00:49:13] turn apps to kind of accommodate the African user may not attach to as much data yeah um really quickly yeah what does it look like for you guys trans 2024

[00:49:28] the future is always fun I think we are we are in a new space so come end of year we hoping to have fully settled in in terms of what we want to do next time you come we should

[00:49:41] hopefully have a really cool mural up there we are so settling in we have a space now for our own events as well so that's pretty exciting what we can do we also hoping to open the app

[00:49:53] to the community as well so it's not just gcr I want something to do stop but if adrian have something in mind it's like okay we have this weekend open come use our space that would

[00:50:02] be pretty cool because I think for us the realization or the the motivation our increase is becoming how do we carry our community along with us there are things we want to do but then

[00:50:17] we also recognize that there are things that everybody who's a part of gcr and for me it's not just our production team and our hosts and our editors and our photographers and all of that

[00:50:25] but there's also our listeners as well they also form our parts of gcr they're the ones who's listening to our ship guess us where we are so then how do we listen to you and position

[00:50:36] what you care about yeah also and bring that to to the table so hopefully 2024 seaside be very busy and if we are still around the next two years there'll be 10 years that will be a decade that

[00:50:49] should be a fun that should be a fun celebration yeah around to kind of celebrate yeah that's that's quite a remarkable milestone yeah right looking forward to it which is yeah I mean we

[00:51:01] celebrated three years um 2022 and we had a little you know party and chatting funny enough we might have a huge house bender so let's see it would be a great actually fun yeah that would be

[00:51:12] crazy but what you guys are pretending like only imagine yeah well country's been fantastic thank you so much on social media so I would say go to listen to gcr.com but I think on twitter

[00:51:24] we are goldcoachreport on instagram is the goldcoachreport and then from there there are links everywhere that will take you to our tiktok anywhere else that we are yeah well make sure all

[00:51:33] that isn't a show note so you guys once again can head over to the sound of a card dot com for slash gcr that's the sound of a card dot com for slash gcr let us know what you think in the

[00:51:42] comments below um probably do with part two sometime because it's other stuff a little bit yeah dive into community listenership like there's so much we can talk about um but

[00:51:50] yeah let us know what you think in the conversation again or comments maybe we'll do like a ig live or something i don't know youtube live whatever right let us know what you think of the episode

[00:51:59] and leave us a review on spotify apple pot cards etc and we'll catch you in the next episode thank you so much for watching cheers it's a rack thanks for your time that was good

[00:52:12] hopefully that was good yeah that was good that was good to this one this episode i didn't really want to come up with like a strict agenda just wanted it to flow it because

[00:52:20] we're both podcasting with people so okay let's go to the natural uh yeah thank you for coming back up with all of us that are actually really good why do i have to like wow was it insane

[00:52:31] that's far away but like pictures pictures for me wait here yes i've lost it i've lost it i've lost it okay that's what it does but that lights just here so don't go back to the big one of the bits that lights here we'll gather that chance yes

[00:53:00] so you're set set full just some say it down with some starting up okay what's your favorite uh what's your preference both well i can't make my mind that we are just like to do both all right yeah

[00:53:33] is it okay or was it was it was out we need to go outside or was it okay is it difficult is it easier to go outside or something or should we use the little sorry yeah or maybe just change let me just change the thing settings

[00:53:53] jump to or maybe try the lumix i'm gonna be trying this you got it yeah man yeah it's coming out okay thank you okay cool thank you thank you so one standing up here set back is it okay sure go behind the chimney find it yeah yeah

[00:54:39] if you like off thank you yeah and then just one little video