How this Ghanaian Entrepreneur is bridging Africa's talent gap with 1 Million Jobs | S7 Ep.1

Yeah. They'll just pretty much copy and paste what you're doing. Yeah. That's

like, guys, just do your own. That's

that's the if you if you focus on if you focus on your see what

your unfair advantage is, what you're good at, naturally, you'll be your

own competitive advantage. You don't have to copy anyone. That'd be

Okay. Cool. Let's, let's get going. Yeah. I can hear you.

Rolling. Yeah? Oh, perfect. Cool. I hope you were rolling.

Captured the first part. Are we? Not trying to get not

trying to get canceled out here. Okay. Cool, man. Cool.

I like I didn't I didn't know. I didn't realize they had that, man. That's

good, though, because I'm like, that's because yeah. It was like, I'm about to say,

are we good? I thought I'd have to go. I could Yeah.

Oh, yeah. The the feedback. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. But but you you let me

know that you're up on the road now. Yeah. Like, if you have an issue,

I just have a look over here and signal to me. Yeah. Okay. Cool. That's

fine. Thank you. Yeah. So is it rolling now? Yeah? Yes. It's rolling. So okay.

Cool. As soon as you get back in, I'll stop. Okay.

Cool. Alright. Great. Let's go. Let's get it.

Hey, everyone. My name is Adrian Daniels. Welcome to the Sound of the Crowd

podcast. You good? I'm good. No. It's all good. It's good.

Okay. Running running again. Alright.

Cool. Hey there, everyone. No.

This one. Yeah? This one. Okay. Cool. And is it these two? Yeah? This

one and this one. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. Got you. Got you. Yeah. Because that that's

all. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Cool.

Alright. Hey there, everyone. Welcome to the Sound of

Accra Podcast. I go by the name of Adrian Daniels. If this is your first

time listening, this is the show where we speak of top Ghanaian founders, entrepreneurs,

and creators worldwide with the aim of leaving you behind the meaningful takeaways that

you can apply in your life, business, and career. Just some housekeeping, guys. For

today's show notes, I'd like you to head over to the

sanmacabre.com/samuelb. That's the

sanmacabre.com/samuelb. That's for all of

today's references, links, nuggets, and wisdom notes from today's

session. If you're watching on YouTube, please hit like, leave us a comment, and let

us know what you think of today's episode. Spotify, Apple Podcast listeners,

etcetera, five star views very much appreciated. Today,

is gonna be a special episode. Having a lovely catch up with

mister Samuel Brooksworth, remotely. You already know what

what you may have heard them with him already, especially from season three.

Samuel's gonna tell you more about them if you don't. But, yeah, we're

gonna continue our conversation with Samuel. It's been quite

a while. Samuel, thanks for coming on the show. It's it's thanks for coming back

on the show. A pleasure. A pleasure as always. A pleasure as always. Yeah. New

new year, new setting, new new city. We recorded in,

I think, almost three years ago in Accra. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Twenty twenty one,

I think. Yeah. I think it was. Or was it early twenty twenty two? I

think it's one of those. What one or the other. Yeah. And now it's,

June 2024 as we speak. We're in London doing this recording.

Remotely is gone to leaps and bounds and is

doing amazing, amazing things. It's been beautiful to see the growth.

Talk to me, brother. How are you doing? I'm good, man. I'm good. New year,

new child. Congratulations.

Team's getting bigger. Team is getting bigger. We we have a whole five sats team

now, so Yeah. Including me and the missus. Five sats

are three kids now. So it's been a beautiful journey. A lot of

sleepless nights along with the business. Yeah. Of course. Life is life,

and so I cannot complain. Everything's been good. Yeah. Come to the territory

of being a CEO of a company like yours, isn't it? Allow me. Allow me.

We're trying. We're trying. Yeah. We're growing. It's been good. It's been

good. I appreciate it, man. We give glory to God. And, you know, I appreciate

you're really busy. So thank you for taking some time out to come back on

the show and just to give us an update in terms of what you guys

have been up to. Yeah. Speaking of five a side and your kids and your

family, I remember you posting a lovely photo of you on

LinkedIn. I think you and one I think one of your kids, you're looking out

the window. And, I think you're looking out towards the beach or something,

and you're talking about how you've brought your family over to Ghana just

to kind of spend some time with you out there. Yes. This is something

else we're gonna talk about later on, but I think it's been natural naturally organic

just to bring it here. Mhmm. How's it been, you know,

balancing life in UK and Africa and, you know, balance of work

and your family? How's that been for you? You know what? It's it's been beautiful.

It's been calm. It's been

structured. I think that moment you're speaking about with the kids and I were looking

out the window in my office was a whole full circle moment

where my parents came to The UK in the seventies, eighties,

and they came here to create more opportunities for themselves and for

us. They always planned to go out to Ghana. Like most

Ghanaian parents never quite seemed to go back and ended up

staying here. So, them creating such a beautiful

foundation for us here. I remember telling my mom, like I said, two times ago

of going back to Ghana, she was like, why? You you

built and set up everything in The UK. Why do you want to go back?

And, having spoken to about a vision, what we wanted to do,

obviously, very supportive and having a moment where I could take my kids

to Ghana and then see what we've built in Ghana. It

was just a beautiful moment and, yeah,

it's something that'll stay with them for the rest of their lives, having that moment

of stepping into the office for the first time and seeing what daddy's daddy's

constantly travelling, finally seeing where all the hard work is is going

towards. So, yeah, it was a beautiful moment and balancing it's been it's it's been

nice. It's good having a very supportive wife, having a very supportive

good support system. So everyone's understands

the the the level of time and effort that goes into doing what we're doing.

So it's been good. That's beautiful to see. And you have a beautiful family as

well. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Congrats on what you're doing and, you know, the

family's growing as well, which is beautiful. Thank you. A question I wanna ask on

the back of that, actually, this is something I asked one of my guests the

other day. Is this remotely, is this

something that you're looking to hand over to your kids in the future potentially or

maybe other maybe using it it could also be used as a wealth vehicle to

build up a form of wealth, then you can leave that behind for them. That

is a very very good question, Adrian Adrian.

It's something I have not thought about in too much depth. I think it's

important to see how they grow in their interest and their likes. I don't want

to force them in something. However, I have kind of

steered them in certain directions to ensure that they do have

that structured plan. And

in doing so, we've seen some of our kids already from a young age flourish

in certain areas. So, for example, our oldest daughter is a very very

creative mind and she loves writing and started writing her first book and

she's eight. And then our second daughter who's four is

a phenomenal footballer. We didn't actually know she was so good at football. It was

her nurse for teacher who was saying that she's running rings around the boys at

playtime. Well, I know she's not. Wow. So I remember taking her to a football

session on a Saturday. We're like, you just go run around and see what you

can do. Remember the moment the ball touched her left foot. My

goodness. My goodness. Not sure. What we I saw

money signs. I saw like Chelsea, come and get me. It

was Chelsea. Hey. Listen. Arsenal,

come and get us signed up. But I

she's like, honestly, Adrian, she's so good at football. And it's

beautiful just seeing her gifting, being cultivated and us taking her different

sessions. Her being at four, she's now playing with under eight girls. And then

our, obviously, last born boy, it's difficult to see what he's gonna do right now.

He's only 10 old. But, it would be nice if we had

kids who, after a while, stepped into the businesses we set up for them and

continued that. But even if they wanted to go down their own paths, they're gonna

be very well supported regardless. So, we'll see how time

how how how how that time goes. Yeah. Is it that's a that's a great

response. It's an interesting one because you see, like, families out there, for example, like

the Beckhams, like, you know, everyone probably for one of David Beckham's sons

are gonna, like, blow up in football. I think maybe Brooklyn or whatever or Romeo,

one of them. I think they played football, but not I think maybe Atletico Madrid's

b team or Inter Miami's b team or something like that. I think that's the

heights that they reached, but it never, you know, replicate

exactly what Beckham did or maybe Ronaldo Junior. I mean,

he seems to be going that direction. So you can't really

force, you know, a child to go in a certain direction or to follow in

your footsteps. You just have to see what they're naturally good at or what they're

naturally creative at doing. So I like what you're doing. You're just seeing what, you

know, what talents or skills they naturally have and just push them in that direction.

That's wonderful to see. Don't get me wrong. I do think that there is an

importance into ensuring that the family's stability is there

generationally. Mhmm. And it's very important that you do steer them in certain

directions. Leave them to be too free. I do feel

it is, can actually hinder them in the long term because as a young child

you never really know what you want to do and when you have that kind

of direction, I think growing up I was quite fortunate I just kept trying new

things and eventually something stuck. But when you do look at other households

where they've been able to continue generational wealth as we're speaking about their kids

are pushing certain directions and it is key that you do direct them from a

young age to help earn spots,

identify, and cultivate certain giftings. Yeah. And, someone like

Olivia, a creative as she is, I do see her as someone who can we

can trust at such a young age to to be able to be financially responsible,

to handle the wealth that will transfer over to her, to look after her siblings.

Charlotte as, boisterous and as crazy as she can

be, she's she's extremely tenacious and we know that

she's someone who will push boundaries and take things to other levels. And

Theodore, our last born, he's well, Samuel Theodore, obviously. I had to do I

had to do near him. But Samuel Theodore, he's a, even at

such a young age, is a very calm and composed child.

So, you know, he's the kind of individual who is able to handle pressures and

we're able to delegate and and negotiate and just

understand things. So us seeing these things, we just cultivate the giftings that we see

in them and push them to ensure that way if they do, whether it's for

them, it helps to push the family's name legacy and them to

new levels so that they can create that for their children Yeah. For their children,

their children, that there's a structure that just continues for generations. Wow. That's

beautiful. That's a really, really beautiful statement you just made.

Beautiful, names you've given to your kids, by the way, as well. Thank you. I

think you named one of them after yourself. Is that great? I I I I

I had to start to slip on it. So he

his name is actually Samuel, Theodore, Leonard, but I we in house

recording Theo, because it's difficult when you got two Samuels.

My dad will call Samuel as well. So, even let's come into the house. It's

a bit difficult at times. He'll be open my letters by accident.

Bro. Bro. You you asked me a letter. So hopefully that won't happen with him.

But, yeah, it's it's it's nice having another little Samu run around. It's wonderful.

Yeah. So wonderful to hear. All right. So we've talked about building family and

how you're doing with family. Let's talk about building the teams. I think it's a

great segue. So remotely, since we last spoke, of course,

it's growing leaps and bounds since our last conversation. Talk us

through, like, where it is now. I mean, you don't have to give the exact

numbers in terms of team size. But talk us through, like, maybe

the key highs that you feel like you've made or key or how you've restructured

the business since then to get for it to get to where it is now

and, you know, and the team? Yeah.

Obviously, as you've seen, the the the growth has been

exponential. The team's grown massively. Mhmm. And it's all it's

all it's number one. Obviously, I I always say this. I can I can go

to the glory? Amen. Because a lot a lot of what's happened has generally not

been by my strength for my intellect because the way things have gone up and

the way things have continued to expand, especially with how the economy is in

Ghana, across Africa, in The UK. To see continuous

growth in what we have, built is beautiful. When you

see other organizations of us of similar to us in some

industries haven't done as well and are crumbling to see us gaining

investors and see individual interested businesses still with us,

businesses expanding through us. It's been a beautiful journey. But that's

testament to the team we have, and we have a team who stuck with us

from the very beginning. No matter what's happened, if it's turmoil, adversity,

they stuck with the business and they've helped the business to grow. And then along

with the key hires, as you mentioned, we've brought on a CTO, called Liam,

who's helped to really build our technical technological platform. Yeah.

We first started the business. The whole aim was to create a SaaS product. But,

so that was, that was the goal from the jump from the jump was to

create a SaaS product. But then as you can imagine, I wanted to create SaaS

products. I went out looking for funding millions of pounds of people like

young brother-in-law. We have no trust

or confidence that you can build what you're saying. You can build no experience, which

is understandable. So rather than me just constantly going out and looking for more,

more money, I said, do you know what? Let me actually build a people focused

business first, hire the people, build up the structures.

And then once I've done that, prove the revenue generation,

prove the concept, prove the concept of working in Africa. Now I can

build my SaaS product on top. And now having done that, it's a lot easier

now we're going to speak to investors and looking to close deals in the coming

months. Yeah. Hopefully, by the time the podcast is out, we should hear someone else's

by then. Oh, wow. Okay. So you're raising a bit more? That's correct. Yeah. So

in in us doing, so we've proven the model now.

So it's a lot easier happening in discussions. It's a lot easier to show,

what we've built through the revenue we've generated. And

Liam's been a key part of that. We've just hired actually as we're as

we're yesterday. Our COO now who is a

woman in Africa. And it's amazing having her onboard. She got vast

experience on the continent, building international brands, bringing them to Ghana,

building them in Ghana and across different regions in Africa. Now she'll

be joining our team to help grow the brand and it was so key for

us that we got a woman and someone in Africa to do so because

one thing I've been very confident about is that we do have talent at home

and we're trying to avoid brain drain to stop the best talent from leaving the

continent. She was actually looking to go to America and then I spoke

to her and she's gonna see this and I'm grateful

listen. Do not go to America. The opportunities you want are on this continent. She

said, no. She wants to go. She's got two ks. She wants to go there.

And we had a conversation to be fair to her to be fair to her.

She saw the vision that she was more than eager to want to join and

wanna be a part of it. And it was testament to her was the fact

that she stayed, and she stayed, and she's now become our chief operating officer. And

she's now helping to grow the business across the new regions we've

recently expanded into, which are Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya.

We talked about Rwanda in the last episode. Yes. Rwanda is already a part of

Rwanda and gunnery there. So South Africa, Kenya,

Senegal, Egypt. Wow. That's the one,

we've now expanded into. So now seeing that growth, finding someone on the

ground who has that experience to really help us grow operations across the

continent and globally. So, it's honestly just been a

beautiful journey because we have a team who have the experience and the passion to

help drive the business forward. That's brilliant. It's just amazing. I think

for me just to speak to guests and have, you know,

consecutive conversations with them and just to see where they've where they've gone to since

the previous conversation. You know, I think we're talking about where this podcast has grown

since we last spoke. Exactly. Yeah. Which is great. But to see what you're doing

is just amazing. Like, we talked about certain countries that you're going to go

into in in the last conversation. Just to hear you actually do that a lot

more is incredible. No. Don't don't don't don't jump off that so quickly. What

you've done is you bro, like, at the end of the day, what you have

to realize is that you've created platforms for organizations like ours. Yeah. So it's

beautiful that we've grown, but if not for the support of podcasts and platforms

like yours. My mom used to always say to me, you could be the greatest

preacher in the world. We've done have a platform. Nobody heard your

message. So platforms create and we've seen a lot of platforms

being created for organisations, business people in the Western

world based beautiful platforms like yours can create that stepping

stone for organizations based in Africa. But if not for that, how would

people hear of us? So True. Kudos to you and and what you're doing, man.

True. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate appreciate it. Wow.

So talk about talk talk to us about the talk to me about the,

the AI plat the AI powered platform that you built on top of it. What

does that look like? How does that look like? So the a well, what the

platform now does is, what we were aiming to do was to try and create

a platform that really helped us to create the biggest talent

pool in Africa. Now initially, when we're doing that, we're building the we're

building the platform, but it was very people centred like I've initially mentioned.

But speaking to thousands of people every month is difficult.

Managing thousands of people every month is difficult training thousands of

people every month. It's difficult managing and seeing where people are in regards to

their job opportunities, whether they are looking for jobs. Manually, it's

very difficult, and our people team were stretched to

maximum capacity. So now we've built a platform. It helps alleviate

all that stress where individuals can come onto the platform now. They can

sign themselves up. They can get trained through the tools. If there's any

competence or areas that they're lacking in, tool can upscale them, make sure that they're

ready for the clients to be able to hire them.

Once clients do come to our platform, they can promote job ads on the

platform, they can hire individuals directly, they can manage the individuals

directly on the platform, they can time track, they can

set tasks, they can approve holidays, and it's all on

a subscription basis. So once, let's say, for example, you're looking for a team of,

I don't know, graphic designers, for example, or a team of software developers,

Once you pay them off the subscription with a click of a button, everything sorted

out for you. The pay, the tier one, tier two, national insurance,

PAYE. There's nothing else for you to do, contractual obligations.

This is all sorted through our platform. You have access to that. You can see

all that, but individuals are fully looked after. All individuals in

Ghana still work from office spaces. So for individuals globally who are looking to

build their teams through office spaces, we have that model still operating in

Ghana. Through all the other countries, if most individuals don't really

mind where the individuals are based, like South Africa or Nigeria, That's the country I'm

in. I forgot. My Nigerians will kill me. Nigeria. We are in

Nigeria. Nigeria. All the other countries operating is all remote.

So if you want to hire your stuff in the through there, they will work

remote. But the beauty of our platform is that, we

geofence the tools that individuals use so you can see where they are, you can

see what they're doing. It's really, really beautiful and,

proprietary technology our CTO has built. So it allows a lot of organisation, a

lot more comfortability with using our platform, working with individuals in Africa

so they can showcase their skills and their talents. One of the things we always

used to get was how can we know or trust to work

with individuals on the continent and the whole idea of the platforms to alleviate

these concerns and that kind of worry so that they we could create

opportunities through the platforms, individuals who are comfortable working with

them. And we made it as simple and as easy as possible to ensure that

they were able to work with these individuals with ease.

Wow. That's incredible what you've done. Like, you've you've layered on

top the fantastic people structure and the fantastic team

that you've built. And now you've you've put in the

building blocks in place to allow remotely to scale to where

it needs to go to or where it's going to, which is amazing because you

can hire all these people, you can manage all these people, but

it is very, very difficult. But once you have the tech in place, well, the

tech stack in place, wow, it's going to give you the now now you're gonna

soar like an eagle. I can see it now. I can see it now. Wow.

This is beautiful. It's an end to end platform like the

staff, the, you know, the candidates, the talent,

and even the employers themselves, isn't it? That's correct. Yes. So there's

literally nothing else for us to do. It's all been set up. It's it's it's

it's it's running now, and it's it's been a

long process. Yeah. It's not been easy, but it's been well worth it because

we spent a lot to build it, but we know that's and it's through the

testing we've been doing for years, to be honest. A lot of the individuals kind

of always ask why haven't we kind of scaled quicker or done things quicker.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a very patient person. I like to do things,

at the right time, at God's timing, because it's not a case of me rushing

and seeing what others are doing by going around raising tens of millions and

creating unicorns in five years and so and so forth. That's I want to create

something that will outlive me. We've seen the

rays of you the the rise of unicorns on the continent and most of whom

have lost their unicorn status over the last couple of years if you've been

following their journeys. And it's been unfortunate, but

that's not what we're trying to do. We want to ensure that what we build

is sustainable and long lasting, not for the sake of me creating a name or

legacy for myself, but creating something that will enable people to

gain employment opportunities for their kids to come. We need to create something that will

enable people to get jobs, their kids to get jobs, their kids' kids to get

jobs. And if we set the foundations right now, when I'm long gone, it'll

still be going. So it's not a case of just borrowing money and doing,

raises from a to z. And then we value that, we have

valuation, we value that. It doesn't it doesn't it doesn't benefit me or anyone else.

We need to ensure that we're sustainable, we're revenue generating, that revenue

generation makes sense over time with a team of individuals who are able to continue

to pivot and understand the market, understand the conditions. We were

able to come through COVID. After COVID, people in the office spaces were still running,

still thriving, still growing. Now the world has come to an AI country,

so we transition the business again to ensure that we're still ahead of the curve.

I love that. So no matter what happens, we have a team who understand what's

happening and are continuously innovating. And hopefully, that will

continue for the case to come. That's fantastic. How

do you make sure that you're you're you're keeping at the forefront of

technology and what's happening on the globe? I mean, you even mentioned

economically as well. I mean, if you look at Ghana right now, I mean, as

we speak in June 2024, I think it's a pound to

19.1 cities. Crazy. How do you stay in the

forefront of all of these different, areas to make sure

that remotely you store positions to competitively, compete or to

competitively do business, you know, as a as a business? Two

things. Number one, prayer. Because without

without the buying strategy and understanding it'll be difficult to really grow in and to

build things to the level we need to get to. Mhmm. Number two, hires. I've

just come to realization, listen. There's only so much I can do, and there's only

so far I can drive things. But if I'm bringing on people who are better

than me in certain areas or bringing on people who are wiser than me in

certain areas, better than me yourselves, better than me operations, better than

me technically, it's so key key that we bring these individuals in. And I now

have a team where I'm confident these individuals can do things at a much higher

level than I could, and I can hand things over to them and not have

to worry about it, check-in on their micromanage, do anything, leave them to

their own devices as I do, able to travel, spend time with

my kids, family, but know the business is growing in the

right direction. And these individuals I now know

with the way our team is set up in a way in which we

the focus we have, the mindset we have, and the hearts we have as a

team is always to ensure we're bringing on people who are better than us to

help things to move forward. It's not a case of us sitting as the auger

at the top and no one else can pass us. That's not the mental health

we have at all. We understand the importance of the vision we

have. And if we want to ensure that we are at our forefront and we

are continuously pushing that change, we have to ensure we're bringing people

better than us to keep moving that forward. And when you look

at the landscape, like, we mentioned before we started filming how there have been

so many podcasts who have come in and looked at what you've done and tried

to replicate it. And it's been beautiful in the sense that, yes, there have been

a lot of other people who have had land that's put on them, but because

of the benchmarks and excellence you initially did, people have in the standards they need

to get to. And I relate that to remotely where there's been a lot of

outsourcing or staffing recruitment platforms who have been built since the

birth remotely. And for me, it's always a beautiful thing because we've shown that this

the level you have to at least minimum minimum you have to be here. But

in doing so, we then create a more employment opportunities for people.

Listen, remotely cannot employ Yeah. All the people in the continent. So

it's important that there are other platforms that rise up as well

to create opportunities as well, which is what we love. We

speak to mental help other organizations actually start up in the industry. Mhmm. But

they have to be at a certain level because if you come in, you're not

doing something at a certain level. You only mess up opportunities for all of us

who are trying to create things for people as well. Mhmm. So that's

where we're it's so key that we do always constantly bring in better

people to constantly keep things moving so people can see the benchmark and keep rising

their business up to that level as well. Yeah. That's deep. Yeah.

I like what you said about allowing these other outsourcing

companies to, you know, do what they're doing because

it's only helping to create jobs. But if they should dare enter that

market, enter that space, they should at least do it to a certain benchmark and

certain standard. Otherwise, you know, wipe off of getting into it.

You've you've come a long way and the businesses pivots not pivoted, but it's

grown quite a bit. Pivoted a little bit in terms of AI tech. Hunt for

you. How would you describe the organization now? I mean, I think when we

first had our in first conversation, it was more like tech outsourcing

Yeah. Business in Africa. How would you define remote

ears? Over time, we're slowly being more

because it more and more as a as a SaaS product now, which, again, I

had in mind. Yeah. How have people defined it? Some

people still call it an outsource business. Some people consider a staff for

recruiting business. Yeah. Some people consider us as a as a HR platform. Some people

consider us as a SaaS platform. Honestly, I'm multi vobes. We we we

cross all these different industries. Yeah. But the beautiful part is where

if we you could see us as competitors to platforms like Fiverr or

People Power Yeah. In the way in which we're set up, you can see us

competitors to further outsourcing organizations. However, you know, kind of

structure us how much you find. We have a very unique model, though. In a

sense, our model is subscription based, which no other plat platform or organization or

industry does. So it's literally like a subscription like Netflix or

Spotify. You pay monthly for your staffing, because it's a very unique concept,

but we've made it work. Yeah. And in doing so, we've just seen that a

lot of organizations just see it as a no brainer to work with us because

why wouldn't you? If you're looking to scale your businesses at speed with the right

individuals who've been vetted, the right individuals who are competently capable, the right individuals

who have the right platforms who can manage them effectively and efficiently, why wouldn't you

work for with with remotely to grow your business to the highest level?

And we're we're working with some of the biggest organizations in the world, right now,

and supporting them and their growth. So it only makes sense that we have

individuals in our business who are supporting organizations like PlayStation and Microsoft. That's Google

and L'Oreal. So we've shown we've been

ISO certificated. We've Yeah. Gone out and done so much with

within the organization to show our credibility in Africa. Yeah. Picked up some

awards too, man. Congrats with that. We train. We train.

So, we've shown our credibility. We've shown what we are all about.

So, yeah, hopefully, it has come to the ground. How does it make you feel,

like, what you've built, you know, over the years?

That the job's not done. There there's more to do. There there's more to do.

I think,

I'm learning to become more content. My wife, my

kids Yeah. Teach me to be more content on a day to day basis. Okay.

I think naturally as a person, I'm not a content person. I I I I

can see it. I never feel as though anything's ever good enough, and I'm always

constantly beating myself up in regards to what more I can do. Yeah.

But right now, I think I'm going for a a a time in my life

where I'm just learning that, you know what, just be a priest of of the

current moment and not to think to think too far ahead.

So I think right now, if you ask me, I'd say that, I'm

proud, but I'm so not sure I'm so proud of myself. I'm also proud of

the team, for my family for supporting me through this whole period,

for what we've built, opportunity to create, and the last we've changed.

That is proud when you think about it. So yeah. Wow.

Samuel, like, you're very selfless person. What I love about you

is you've you've given most of the credit to

your family, the team that you've built, to God, you

know, to all of these external factors outside of you

to help you to build remotely where it is today. And I think there's no

accident that, you know, your ultimate goal is to help

create million plus jobs in Africa across the continent as your

vision. Taught me more about that vision and where that came from a bit more

about where that came from. I think you touched upon it in our first conversation.

And, you know, how you see yourself achieving this vision. I'm sure

now now that you've got tech, you've put SaaS platform in place that can

help you to get there even further. Talk to us more about the vision.

Yeah. So, the vision is now very tangible. It's like

the next few years, we'll we'll we'll we'll have accomplished it.

For me, it's it's beautiful.

The vision has came by, as you know, when we were when I was in

London in 2020 during the pandemic. My wife and I, we we love

traveling. So, going to different countries. And

when we first got married, so just taking it back for the pandemic. Sorry.

She was always like, you need to go back to Ghana. You need to go

to Ghana. And I was like, I'm Ghanaian. She's Ghanaian. I was like, no. I'm

fine. Thank you. I want to travel to other countries, see what places. And she's

like, why? And the truth is, I had a not so great experience when I

was younger. When I went to Ghana with my mom, hopefully not listen to this,

I went to my grandma's house. Yeah. And obviously when you're younger and you go

to grandma's house, most people can attest this kind of experience. They've

got their big houses and it's sort of like, well, thinking

by now, obviously it was her place in Westlands and there was like a lot

of green then, but obviously now it's more built up now. Back then,

Greenland's, we've got chickens running around and, animals. The bungalow and all

the usual setup. Bro. And it's like,

I just didn't have the greatest summer. I was there for six weeks.

Gotcha. I was 12. You're on board? Yeah. I

was 12. I was 12. Couldn't you go to where? I was like, yeah, this

is not, this is not it. So I was like, I don't want to go

back. But obviously that was just from a young experience. And then when I went

back home with my wife and I saw Ghana from an adult perspective, I was

like, wow, this is amazing. So we made a point to go every single

year. And when I had to go back every single year, what I found beautiful

is the development I'd see each year. Yeah. What I found really frustrating is to

help opportunities for young people. Now, it's not me sending them

for anybody. Me, I don't want no trouble. No government's, no people, no nothing. He

get our man of peace. But it was really frustrating that there

should be more being done for these young people. We can't

expect Africa to grow. We can't expect Ghana to grow. But then our

best talents constantly leaving the continent. But at the same time, I didn't want to

be a case where young people in Ghana are looking at me saying, oh, you've

left or you've been able to go to The UK. Your mom gave birth to

you there. Why are you trying to stop us from going there as well? I'm

not. I just want you to gain the opportunities that you should have

on the continent, getting paid what you should be getting paid on the continent

so you don't have to leave home. So we avoid brain drain. Our best talent

stays on the continent so Africa could grow to wherever you want it to grow

to. We can't expect Ghana to grow if all the best

talent is constantly leaving. So for me, it was very, very frustrating.

And also when you speak to a lot of young people, there's nothing more frustrating

than being at home. You want opportunities, want people to see you, but no one's

given you a job. You're a young guy at home. Maybe you've got

a girlfriend. You want to propose. You want to buy a house. Have you seen

the house prices in Accra right now? And I'm like

So inflated, man. For many of us that will go to

and it's not to say Ghanaians. There are many Ghanaians that can afford it in

Ghana. But then it's a case where for the majority of

young people in Ghana right now, it must be so

frustrating because you can see the kind of lifestyle you want. You can see the

kind of opportunities you want, but a lot of it is just out of reach.

And that should not be the case because there are young people around the world

who have been granted these same opportunities. And the gap for me was the

educational piece for a lot of organizations actually in the Western world where they didn't

want to grant these opportunities because of different mindsets they had towards

Africa. So for the past few years has very much been a case of education

breaking down these weird ideologies and thought processes so that they can

understand that you can work with people in the continent, get the same level of

experience, get the same level of work being produced for you

without having to look at Asia. And as time's gone,

we've proven that to be the case, and so, but surely, more organizations are working

with young people. That's fantastic. So young young people is the heart,

the maroons, the vision. I think you did say that Africa is the

youngest population. That's correct. Average age wise.

Yeah. It's fantastic. Yeah. And, yeah, we definitely need to be looking

after them. And it's quite interesting because,

yeah, it's very, very interesting because with, Africa,

like, we need we need, like, more jobs,

and the government is is not doing enough to create these opportunities. But

I feel like with you, not only are Ukraine these opportunities, I

think in terms of what they could probably earn through remotely, they can

hopefully, something where they're able to maybe work towards the lifestyle that

they want and to be able to kind of, like, maybe help their families and,

you know, be happy and be able to, you know, afford afford things that

they should be able to afford. Have you had any kind of

interest in stories or the testimonials maybe from employees or

even customers in terms of how Ramonas changed their lives?

Yes. Just on that point in regards to the governments, the reason I don't

always like to point blame solely on governments is solely because when you look at

most biggest employers, the biggest employers in most countries on the world, they're

usually not governments. They're usually private limited organizations. That's why I

always like implore more organizations, owners,

diasporins, people in Ghana to

create more businesses, to create more employment opportunities for young people.

Truthfully, that's the answer. Private limited organizations is what the answer is,

what Ghana needs. That will be the future of Ghana. There's only so

much any government can do. But if there are more private limited

businesses, and I'm not saying the government are doing everything they can do, I'm really

not saying that. So for people people come and bash me that I'm I'm defending

the government. Mhmm. It's more so the case where what can we

do as Ghanaians? What can we do as Africans? Whether it's Kenya,

Kenya, as I'm talking about Ghana because I'm obviously Ghanaian,

but now we're in Kenya, Nigeria. I should look at these organized countries.

Talk talk so whether it's Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa. Mhmm.

My goodness. What a force. Yeah. Rwanda,

which run the random government is doing a fantastic job, actually.

And Egypt is another way to speak to young people in Egypt.

There's so much more that can be done by individuals in the countries and and

and to be fair, we're seeing that with the data points you're interviewing or

the people that you're seeing in different countries who are creating organizations

and creating change that needs to be seen. So it's being done. But

back to your question in regards to the change of lives of individuals in the

business and of organizations, I mean, yeah, because just

looking at it from a business perspective, you have business owners

who potentially couldn't afford to hire organizations in The UK and The US.

So a lot of their businesses just were just crumbling and they just were stressed

or struggling. They're working with individuals in Asia,

not that the work that's been conducted isn't great but they couldn't like

vibe with them culturally, culturally, they didn't really get what they were

building, they didn't really relate to them. So when some

of them started using remotely, it was just revolutionary for them

because they were like, I finally have a staff member or staff

members who get what I'm building. We can talk.

Time zones are the same. Culturally, we get it. Like

whether you're The UK is part of the Commonwealth. There's a huge

colonial past in Ghana. So a lot of young people in Ghana

if you're talking to people in UK, they get it. People in America, they

get it. So that Western culture is somewhat

there in Ghana. So when they're working with these organizations, they get it. They

can communicate with they can understand them. Lot

of business owners to grow their businesses in a sustainable way, cost

effective way, be again really top quality individuals to work

in our businesses. And then from a staffing perspective, there are many

testimonies with individuals who are unemployed for one, two, three years after

graduating, individuals who had huge

financial family burdens on them, whether expected to be the breadwinners, but

they just couldn't get a job. And then you see how remote is coming, not

just from a monetary perspective, but from a networking perspective,

and individuals who have gained more, better, or higher

employment opportunities off the back of it, individuals who huge doors have opened

to individuals who, again, though we're trying to avoid it, but I've

been able to gain opportunities to leave the country and hopefully

come back to the country to create more opportunities. And,

again, whether whether people's aims and dreams are, we always encourage it

and and and encourage and support them.

So we've seen so many testimonials and telling testimonies through individuals'

lives, businesses and individuals. And it's beautiful because then you're seeing the power of

an idea that's been transformed into reality that's having a direct

impact in people's lives. And for me, it's just it's been a beautiful journey.

Incredible. Wow. I mean, just to see everything that's that you've

created as a result of remotely is really, really incredible to see.

Absolutely incredible. Samuel, this has been a fantastic

conversation. Yeah. What does what does the future

look like in terms of remotely? I know you've talked about you're

gonna look look to raise again. You know, you've you've raised

you've raised some funding from Jeremy Frimpong, you know, buying the

Ferguson winner. Congratulations to him and to yourself. Massive congrats to

him. Yes. That was a master show. How did that come about, really quickly? So,

funnily enough, his team actually reached out to us. Oh. Yeah. So, we

did I think it was a Forbes interview we did or,

Cambridge interview that we did. And then soon after that, I think their team had

been following us for a while. Jeffrey Mhmm. His big

brother actually messaged me, and I hadn't seen a message. So

I'm terrible on LinkedIn. So I've actually now given I don't wanna say that,

but I'm I'm terrible on LinkedIn. That's okay to say. No. No. So so I've

actually given my assistant access to it. I just can try and respond to messages

and reach out to people because I miss a lot on LinkedIn. Yeah. I'm not

good at social media in general. That's okay. Yeah. I'm sorry,

ma'am. I'm sorry for for people to care. I don't air people. I'm sorry. I'm

I'm just not a social media person. No. That's okay. Because you're you're you're you're

okay to admit that because there's things that you are good at that you wanna

focus on. Yeah. That's true. I appreciate that,

man. I appreciate that. And I appreciate the good words making me feel very good,

man. But I'm a slow good social media person. So he messaged and I didn't

see it for time. So, yeah, I think he then reached out to Simon. Simon

was like, Simon, I have not seen this message from Jeffrey. I'm like, bro, I

see that. And so then he set up, began the conversations. Then we jumped on

to call. It was a very quick and simple process. More of, okay, so listen.

We love what we're doing. We wanna be a part of the journey. We wanna

be a pathway building. It was no, like, long negotiating Yeah. Back

and forth terms. This is what we're gonna do. This is what we invest.

Are you cool? And for me, it's beautiful because it's

encouragement to a lot of entrepreneurs who are out there who are building their businesses

and they feel that no one's seen them, no one's recognized what they're building, what

they're doing, and they feel that it's long. And the

truth is faith about works is dead. If you

have that thing in your heart, in your spirit that I need to do this

thing, I need to build it, step out in faith and do it. And

in you stepping out and doing it, God will meet you where it is you

are. For those who aren't good for you, not good for you, but regardless of

you are where you are. When you step out and do something, people

will see what you're doing. And if they see what you're doing at the level

of which you want to do it at with excellence, they want to partner with

you on that because they're going to want to be a part of that journey.

So there have been many times remotely our journey has not been easy at all.

There have been highs, huge highs and huge lows,

but regardless of what's happened, we've carried on going And in us

just continuing, people have seen what we're doing. And I've just reached

out and been like, listen. Like, we love what you stand for. We love what

you're doing. We just wanna invest. We wanna partner with.

We wanna be a part of the journey. And that's how all our investors have

come, by the way, literally just through like reaching out to us not us

and all our investors so far that should have been angels as well who have

come back listen here's 50, here's 100, here's two

fifty, invest in the business, grow the business, we're like wow

Beautiful. None of them we've required a pitch deck for.

We've not any all our investors, not one pitch deck could be sent out to

any of them. It's just been literally two

conversations at max. Terms sent out, signed,

money transferred, and it's been so beautiful. Whereas

in the other conversations when we've reached out, when we've gone through long and laborious

conversations, back and forth, It's not quite

happened. So if anything, I hope that serves as encouragement to a lot of entrepreneurs.

Just keep going. Yeah. And once the right individuals see what you're

doing, they'll reach out to you and ensure that your dreams just go to another

level. Fantastic. And this is such a beautiful way

of raising money because, you know, we all know

about pitch decks and demo day and, you know, pitching day and all these kind

of things. But why have to go through all those hoops when you

just document what you're doing, you know, build in public? That's

why that's why I hear. Build in public and then someone will come knocking, hey.

We wanna support you. I think it's much easier and simpler that way than than

you agree. For a lot of

black entrepreneurs listening to this, they will understand the

frustrations or reasons of black business owner. And it's sad

because I'm a very chilled person. I'm not too

fussed. If I was to have taken all the notes to heart and I've been

involved in sales. Some of the notes that I've received personally have

been awful. Awful. And luckily, I I

don't really take things to heart. So no matter how you try to crush my

spirit through the wickedness you try to do to me, I'm not I'm never too

fussed because at the end of the day, as my my sub my twin brother

always say, it is what it is.

I'm never too fast and individuals have literally gone out of their way. If I

tell you some of the things some some VCs have done to us, like some

VCs take us through the whole process, deliberately giving term sheets to us, knowing

they would never fully intend to invest, to pull away last minute. Some investors have

just, like, given the most awful responses to us by

emails and one day, one day, God willing, if I ever get to document the

journey, the emails don't disappear. It's like some people

have messaged me some of the most awful messages on LinkedIn. We've done, like,

email outreach campaigns throughout my through my platform and for my LinkedIn, sorry, and

they've said things like, but why? And I'm sure other

black entrepreneurs have been through the same things where they just had the most crushing

nose, but there's no need for that. So, you're right.

When you look at other entrepreneurs from other demographics or backgrounds,

they don't have to go through the same hoops that we need to raise. And

what's sad is that I wrote an article a few years ago in The Guardian

talking about how there needs to be more black VCs, small black businesses, but then

what's sad is that a black VCs are the ones you get some of the

harshest nose from. And it's like, we're

creating this ecosystem but then Black VCs are actually acting

like their counterparts and trying to use the same measuring sticks

as they would for other white owned organisations but you can't because we

all know the hoops and hurdles that black organisations are going through are so different

to them. So you need to use different metrics. You need to use different, measuring

tools. So, yeah, I I I

just hope and pray that a lot of the black founders who are

going through are going through the same journey that I've gone through and I'm going

through. Just keep pushing and keep that determination, that zeal knowing that

other people will see them where they are and what they're going through. And the

truth is like you mentioned, a lot of individuals who are looking to invest in

you will invest in you, which they do for our organisation. You're investing in a

person. You can't invest in a pitch deck. If you invest in an idea

things change. No one saw COVID happening. So all the people invested in

those pitch decks during that period, I'm sure many of them crumbled. But

if you invest in a person, ideas can change, the person can

pivot, the tenacity, the zeal, the will

to succeed. That's one thing you can never take away from me. So

irrespective of what happens in the environment, remote will always

succeed was myself, my team will never allow to fail and if you're investing in

that, your investment will grow. If you're investing in my

idea, an idea alone, I'm not too sure about that big man.

So, it's important that individuals understand that and they just,

start to invest more in people because there are some great people on the continent.

There are some great black entrepreneurs around the world who want to get overlooked

because of their skin color and an idea

Rather than them looking past and looking at their heart, their attention, the same

measurements that they use for a lot of white entrepreneurs. They look at

these individuals and they're like, oh, you're great. You're tenacious. You're you're amazing. We know

you can take this to another level. Why don't you use that same metric for

a lot of black entrepreneurs? And if you if we did and we saw more

investment into black black entrepreneurs, we'll see so many more black

entrepreneurs. Right? And they're doing amazing things. So, hopefully, over the next

few years, we see that. Hopefully, we see change, and we're not gonna get enemies

of our progress. Hopefully, that is the case. But right now, we definitely

are. So so yeah. I I hope so too. What a fantastic way to to

end the conversation. Sam, you've been a fantastic guest. Thank you. Do you have any

announcements? Anything you would like to share to close out?

Keep an eye on us. Keep an eye on growth. If you're an individual looking

for employment opportunities now in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya,

Egypt, Rwanda, Ghana, apply

online now. I've gone on a website now. You'll see, you can join our

you can join our talent pool right now. If you're looking for staff in these

different regions, you can now hire from all these different regions on the platform. You

go online, you'll see different countries you can select from. Go with these selections. I'm

sure AJ will put a code somewhere so that every time you do now

Yeah. He now gets a kickback. So if you're gonna support Adrian's ministry.

Doing the Lord's work as they say. They say. How are you, sir?

If you're gonna support Adrian, it's an amazing way to do so. So, yeah, it's

important that platforms like this also get the support and and the kickback they require

as well. So, yeah, please, if if you're looking for

opportunities, please do apply. And as we create more opportunities, we create

more roles and jobs. Hopefully, more and more people can get employment, support their

families, and do amazing things across the continent. Appreciate, man. Are we gonna see

a Samuel Brooksworth beard line? Are we gonna see that? What? Be be be be

the only line. Are we gonna see?

Listen. Shut, man. I thank you very much for

appreciate that. Thank you. Alright. Fantastic. Fantastic, man.

So, yeah, guys. We'll have the, we'll have a code where, you know, you'll be

able to kind of, like, gain access to remote these services and, you know,

speak to someone in the team. Once again, guys, today's show notes, you can head

over to thesoundofaccra/samuelb. That's

samuelb, for all of today's

show notes, key references, links, nuggets from today's episode.

And, yeah. Make sure you like, subscribe, leave a comment if you're watching on

YouTube. Let us know what you think of today's episodes. Leave a review of you

who've listened to the podcast platforms. And before we head out, Samuel, where can

everyone find Remoteli and yourself? Remotelicom. So that's

remoteli.com

Myself, just Samuel Broxworth on LinkedIn, Instagram.

Not that I use push media much, but if you wanna see anything fast,

then you can see myself there. Samuel Brooksworth on all social platform sand just remotelicom

for any opportunities and to look for stuff in.

Fantastic. Beautiful. And I think we saw, you sponsored your your

when your daughter's teens. Right? Yes. Yes. Beautiful. Not a problem. Yes. We're

supporting my daughter's, football team. Her football team, is not

sponsored by remotely. And every team she moves to moving forward, apart from when she

gets signed by Arsenal, I'm not too sure about it. Maybe Arsenal's sponsor we can

get to when she gets to the to to to the senior team, but, every

team she gets to, we would definitely sponsor and support so that her journey is

well documented and and followed as well. Wow. Definitely amazing. Definitely

amazing what you're doing with that. Wow. Alright, guys. There you have

it. See you in the next one. Thank you. Bye bye.

Hey. That'd be fun. Yeah.