How Workspace Global is Revolutionising Creative Services - A Conversation with Sydney Sam (Live Q&A)

Adrian Daniels [0:00 - 1:19]: So, yeah, guys, so we're live on, we're live on YouTube. We're live on Instagram. We're live on Facebook. We are live on LinkedIn. Let us know if you can hear us, first of all, loud and hear loud and click. Make sure you guys can hear us. Drop a message in the chat. If you can hear us, drop a, like, drop a heart. Give us a heart. Drop a message. Let us know where you're tuning in from, what city, what town, what country you're tuning in from. Let us know what you're excited to learn about today. Regarding our season six sponsors, workspace Global, we're joined by the founder here, Sydney Sam, the mastermind behind the SaaS platform. Yeah, let us know where you're coming in from. Let us know. And then we'll drop the message in the chat. Okay. And I can see, I'll be, I will be able to show the messages on the stream. So if you drop the message in the stream, I'll be able to show it on the screen, which is fantastic. All right. But, yeah, give us a, like, give us a comment. Let us know where you guys are tuning in from so we can know that we can actually know that you guys can hear us loud and clear, which would be fantastic. All right, this would be great. But before we kind of. So whilst waiting for the audience to kind of like, drop messages in the chats to give us the likes, the thumbs up, we do appreciate it's a sunny Friday evening, you know, so some people might, some of you might be out and you guys might want to get up so far. Yes. Sicily. Let us know how your, how your week's been so far.

Sydney Sam [1:20 - 1:24]: So, yeah, so I'm actually in Cape Town, South Africa right now.

Adrian Daniels [1:24 - 1:24]: Fantastic.

Sydney Sam [1:25 - 2:08]: So it's, yeah, it's, it's winter time in Cape Town, but it's not anything as close to the other winters around the world. So I've had a really good week. I'm serving a quick contract here in Cape Town, so I'm here with my family. I've been working with my team, trying to sign some new clients, new partnerships, also from South Africa, so activating the market here. But it's been really, really nice. You know, Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, I would say. I mean, second only to Accra. So, yeah, it is. It has been really, really, really nice and very refreshing to be out here.

Adrian Daniels [2:08 - 2:09]: But, yeah, that's beautiful.

Sydney Sam [2:10 - 2:10]: To be here.

Adrian Daniels [2:10 - 2:18]: Yeah, that's beautiful. I mean, Accra is, I mean, Accra is great. It's home and all, but I mean, Cape Town, I've not been there yet, but it's just somewhere that I do.

Sydney Sam [2:18 - 2:19]: Want to come out to.

Adrian Daniels [2:20 - 4:34]: It looks stunning, and I think Johannesburg is. Johannesburg is Joburg, as they say, is another place that, you know, I'm looking forward to coming up to. So South Africa, hopefully. Hopefully we can come up there at some point. But, yeah, let's continue to get the feedback from the audience. If you guys can hear us loud and clear, please give us a, like, give us a thumbs up, drop a message in the chat. Let us know if you guys can hear us. Okay? So we can know that, you know, we are being heard clearly. What else do we have? Just to remind you guys, we are live on Facebook. We are live on Instagram. We are live in YouTube. We are live on LinkedIn. If you can hear us, please drop a message in the chat. Let us know if you can hear us. If you are in Instagram and the video is not clear, please join us on YouTube. If you find us on YouTube, be sure to join us live there. If the video does look a little bit funny. Okay. If you're on LinkedIn, you know, drop a message, let us know, you know, what you think about today's stream so far. And, you know, let us know where you're coming in from. Let us know where you're tuning in from. Be great to hear from all of you. All right. But, yeah, we are still live on all of the simultaneous platforms. And let's continue on the discussion. So great. So Sidney just mentioned that he's currently in South Africa trying to sign some more deals for workspace global. And we're going to get into more about what workspace global do in just a moment. But, Siddy, could you tell us about your story in terms of how you launched the workspace global platform and what led to you structuring the business in such a way where it's now more like a subscription, like a SaaS model, because it's quite clever. Yeah, because, you know, this is something I don't hear too often about because, you know, you have the usual person that's on upwork on Fiverr, you know, all these different platforms, and they're requesting one time work. This is usually the case, all this design crowds, freelancer.com. but you've got the subscription model where you guys can pay a subscription, and you guys get a certain amount of designs every single month. And I think this is the future. You know, we all love our Netflix. We all love YouTube. Premium Amazon prime. Talk us more about this. This is exciting.

Sydney Sam [4:34 - 10:21]: Okay, so I'll probably take us way back to just to give context about where, where this even came from. So I was born and raised in Ghana. I went to University of Ghana where I started my first business back in 2011. So I've actually been an entrepreneurship for about 13 years. Wow. My first business went viral at the time, but due to certain reasons we had to pivot. But one of the key things were that it focused in universities and universities, students were the ones who were paying us. So obviously, you know, running spoken word, live music and standard comedy concerts, the margins that we're making, that the revenue we're making wasn't covering the cost. Right. So the big gap there was we needed to sign brand partnerships to be able to be sustainable, which is something that we didn't figure out too well at the time. So the whole concept of brand partnerships led me down a rabbit hole in relation to branding, just thinking about what that whole concept of positioning and showing up properly on the market was. So it started me off on a journey as a freelance designer, helping other students entrepreneurs. So I started to really understand the plight of the entrepreneurs, starting from the african entrepreneur. But obviously now I focus on entrepreneurs worldwide. And one thing you would realize is that not every entrepreneur can afford to pay a high end traditional agency to help them build a brand and launch their marketing campaign. Entrepreneurs also, or founders, also do struggle with freelancers. Where do you find a good freelancer? The number of freelancers you need to be able to get everything you need done. So one person can do your website, another person can do your designs, another person does your social media, and you're managing a whole lot of people. Right. And then there's also the group of people who try to do it themselves. Right. But everyone knows if you're not a designer, it's very difficult. It takes a lot of time and, you know, it just eats up a lot of your capacity and bandwidth. Right. So we really learned that firsthand, you know, through that journey of me supporting student entrepreneurs. I did build a very successful agency which is part of what, you know, got us on the Forbes list. It grew to a team of over 30 people working with large brands like the World bank, the UN. We had a lot of very, very large clients. But as the journey went on, we did recognize that we were moving a little further away from our mandates. Number one, but also number two, operating traditional agency model is very heavily based on deep relationships and there's a, a challenge with getting contracts especially in a very politically charged space like Ghana, where you have to know someone, you have to have relationships. There was a little bit of a challenge there. So that led us to thinking about, listen, if we're charging higher and higher, we're moving away from the reason we started, which is supporting people who are starting out in Africa, in the UK, in the US, in the diaspora, you know, so we needed to figure out a way where we could keep the price or the buyer's entry low, because everyone deserves to have a great brand. You can't compete in this world right now, in this business world, without a strong brand, if you don't look slick, people are not paying you your worth. There's all that. So we started on a quest to be able to figure out how to keep the prices low and ensure that, you know, everyone had access to that. But the only way to do that was through technology, right? So that's where we started to really embrace technology. And one unique thing about working at workspace was that we were really obsessed about workflow, right? You know, everybody does well, a lot of people do very good design, very high quality work, but not everyone has the same level of workflow, which has to do with how does the customer share their ideas with you? How does the customer pay you, how does the customer receive your work? All those little things come together to make it really easy to support people. We invested a lot of time into that, and that's what has led us to where the business is at right now. I'll talk a little bit about that in a second so that people can understand what exactly is workspace right now. Another flip into my journey was the freelancer. You know, most people think freelancers just get up and sit behind their computers and just, you know, build websites and stuff like that. But what people don't notice is that the freelancer has to find customers. They need to network and do all of those things. They need to onboard customers, they need to manage payments, they need to manage customer relationships, right? And so we recognize that not everyone has the same access to these skills and these opportunities. And so if you are a freelancer in like one corner of Rwanda or one corner of Kenya, right, and you don't have access to these business networking events, where do you start? Who helps you get get back, if you get what I mean? So we also then thought of the other end, which is how can we employ hundreds or thousands of freelancers in a way that is sustainable, giving everybody access to work. So supporting entrepreneurs and supporting freelancers is what brought the whole idea of the workspace platform together to be able to support these two groups, to drive development, increase livelihoods and make people happy.

Adrian Daniels [10:21 - 10:50]: That's fantastic, Sydney. And this is a really thought out business that you've crafted. You haven't gone to the extent of not allowing yourself to get too carried away in terms of the amount that you're billing for, like these top companies, these banks, these huge companies, but you've allowed yourself to kind of come back to planet Earth and to keep the main thing, the main thing in terms of what the mission is to support everyday entrepreneurs or small businesses or startups.

Sydney Sam [10:50 - 10:50]: Exactly.

Adrian Daniels [10:51 - 11:39]: So I love the fact that you did that and also love the fact, Sydney, that you took it to the next level where you thought about the mind of the freelancer in terms of what they need, in terms of like accounting, finance, billing, customer relations, just things, skills and things that they need to do in a daily, daily basis, maybe on a monthly basis that you want to take the headache away from. Do you understand? So I love the way that you also considered that in terms of what you're doing at workspace global, to make it more accessible, as accessible as possible to these entrepreneurs, small businesses and startups. I think what you've been doing is really, really fantastic. And tell us about where workspace Global was at the beginning and where, and where it's now. The evolution. Have you seen the. Has it, has it, have you seen a business evolve over the years?

Sydney Sam [11:40 - 14:01]: Yes, it has evolved. It's taken on many faces. So I'll start off with explaining what it is now, because I'm sure people watching would just be like, you know, so if it's not an agency, what exactly is it? So what we've built is a tech platform similar to the way you would access Uber on your phone or Airbnb on your phone that connects you to creative teams or startups. Now, the beautiful thing is you can subscribe in a few seconds and within about an hour, you are set up with a full creative team. Designers, writers, social media managers, whatever. And you only pay a subscription for it. You pay the subscription based on how much you need and you can cancel at any time. So there's no long term contracts. You don't have to worry about any of that stuff, you know, so it's just, you know, platform. You sign on, get immediate access to a creative team, and you can make as many requests as you would like. Okay. So the idea is if you start up, if you come up with a business, you subscribe to the workspace platform. You can go like, hey, guys, I need a logo. Within three days, a bunch of logos will be sent to you. Hey, guys, I need a pitch deck. You know, it would ask you a few questions. You know, you provide the information for your pitch deck in three to five days, sent to you. So that's the way we work. And we realize that a lot of people don't always know everything that they need, so they need that flexibility to be able to come up with an idea and, you know, just request for that. Now, the catch is we manage everything for you. So technically, you don't even speak to the creative people, right? You have a dedicated project manager who updates you on everything that you need. You just speak to them. You tell them what you want, and it's like, what's up? Chat, right? You just tell them what you want, and then they would handle that for you. So take on the burden. Yeah, we take on the burden of quality control. We take on the burden of speed. So you never have to worry if your work is going to be late, things like that, because there's always that communication. So it's really easy, very light touch to use this platform. So, yeah, so basically, platform that connects you to creative team instantly. And that's just it. And you can just subscribe, like you subscribe to Netflix, you can cancel at any time. Very, very simple model, and it works out for a lot of people as well.

Adrian Daniels [14:01 - 15:01]: Yeah, it's beautiful. I think it's a match made in heaven because everyone wants, you know, everyone's getting used to the whole way of doing life. Like Netflix, you know, Amazon prime, you know, YouTube premium, people want it now, and people want to be able to have that flexibility in terms of, oh, cool, this is, this is there. I can access it anytime I need it. And because of the uncertainty of life and just, just how busy life gets, you know, at a split second, there's something that you need done and a drop of a penny you need to get something done. So this service, I think it's something that people really need. And I think there's lots of different types of designs that people need and is all well and good platforms like canva, so that we can go and get stuff done by the same time. It's another thing where you're spending your time doing in canva doing, whereas you can outsource it to somebody else who's not only a prep, not only can, knows how to use canva, but probably is a professional. I can probably use platforms better than camper, right?

Sydney Sam [15:01 - 15:01]: Exactly.

Adrian Daniels [15:02 - 15:21]: I think the benefit here is, you know, you're saving time. You also, you know, being able to kind of like delegate, you know, have a tap into a team which he doesn't have the necessarily be on your payroll. Do you get it? Payroll. You can, you can say what you want and it's there. That's it. So I think it's simple. Yeah, it's perfect.

Sydney Sam [15:21 - 15:22]: Yeah.

Adrian Daniels [15:22 - 15:29]: So, Sydney, talk us through, like, the types of services, like when people opt in for the subscription, what kind of designs can it get? Is it graphics and logos?

Sydney Sam [15:30 - 18:11]: Is it. So I'll use this as an opportunity also to talk through how the business evolved. Right. So we launched a business in 2015 in, it started out as a small creative studio focusing only on brand design. And then we realized that as people wanted more brand design, they wanted websites, they wanted other things, and then even started to go into a little bit of marketing. We did scale to a stage where people started to come to us for their marketing campaign. So we run marketing campaigns for brands like Lord of the Wings. We did a lot of things back in the day, but we were never really a marketing agency. We were more of a creative studio. We make the things you need to be able to put out there, you know, but we don't necessarily take on the stuff about putting things out there for you because then that goes into radio ads and buying ads and stuff. We'll get there one day again, but then we just aren't doing that right now. So the kinds of things that you can get now that we're a technology platform is you can get your brand design. So that is somebody who will create your logos, your visual identity, your design systems, somebody who can build your website, that is landing pages, et cetera, et cetera. Someone who can build your presentations and decks, because we know how important pitch decks are nowadays. Cleaning up a proposal, looking really sharp, condensing it into small amounts of information. You have somebody who can do your apps and your app prototypes. So that is actually a bit of a game changer. If you needed to build a product, if you don't have all the money to build the full product, we can just design the product for you in figma so that you can use that to raise funding. You can get some investment and stuff like that. When you do get the investment, you can still come back to us and we'll build the app for you. So that's another thing. So you just subscribe to a dev team and they'll do that. We go all the way. We will handle your social media for you as well. So with social media, we do recognize our limitations. So what we can do is we will put stuff out there for you. We can build your page, clean it up. But again, we don't really venture into the ad advertising space, so we're still building that expertise. But at least if you're like, hey, I just want to have a really nice and present LinkedIn. I want to post three times a week. Just come to us, somebody get it done for you. You have a writer on hand. We can write all your stuff for you and all of that stuff. So it's a pretty broad range in relation to the things that you can get with us. And in some countries, we can also organize photography and video for you. It's not something we push too hard, but if you absolutely need it, we'll make that happen as well. So these are some things you can access on the back? Yeah.

Adrian Daniels [18:11 - 18:49]: Wow, that's like, you know, I feel like I'm a kid in the supermarket and I'm like, I want this, I want this, I want this, I want this. This is fantastic. Yeah, I think this create is really impressive to the, you guys can go as far as to the extent where you can build prototypes on Figma when people are trying to put the MVP's or the minimum viable products together. So if you're a startup and you want someone to help you do that, that's part of this crazy. Like, how do you, how do you, how do you make all of this possible and still be able to, like, make it worthwhile and profitable for, for you and your team? Like, I guess the technology, right? I guess the technology, yeah.

Sydney Sam [18:49 - 20:42]: I mean, so the beautiful thing is that the tech manages our workflow, but human beings still do your work. So that's something that we were very particular about because we think it's really important that all work is very quality check is nuanced in relation to your culture, things like that. Right. It's really good for humans to do it. We are a very tech charged company, so we do use AI to support, like our research and things like that. But a human being always does your work. So that's something that we can guarantee. I can't share too much on what happens, you know, in the background. That's how, you know, there's a lot, there's a lot of other people who have adopted this subscription model, but they're all going to cap at a couple hundred customers or 50 customers, right. We're pushing up to 10,000, 20,000, 10,0000 customers. That's our goal. So we know how we're building things in the background using our technology. And also we've taken a long time. This didn't just pop up within a year. There's a lot of things that we've had to put down over the last three years that allow us to be able to work extremely fast, you know, at extremely high quality, ensure that the customer still feels heard and that it's, you know, it's very human. It's pretty difficult. So we've played the long game and it's paying off because people are like, damn, this is fast. And we're even aiming to get faster. We're hoping to be able to build everything you need within 24 hours. And I know it sounds crazy, but that's the craziness that my team is thinking about. You know, that we're saying that you should be able to launch a business on Monday and by Friday you will have a website, you would have your branding, you would have that. That's what we're aiming to do in a few years. So that's where we're going, you know, with that. So just so that it's, it's very accessible for everyone to be able to build. Build something. Very cool. Yeah.

Adrian Daniels [20:42 - 22:12]: Fantastic. The weekend entrepreneur. Probably creating the next weekend entrepreneurs. I love it. I wake up from a dream. I've got an idea. Monday and Saturday, I've got the, I've got a business launch. I love it. Fantastic. Yeah, yeah, this is brilliant. I mean, to hear that that's the goal, to get to the tens of hundreds of thousands of people to support. That's some serious scale and you probably have to have serious structures and technology and things in place. So, yeah, I think, you know, I mean, for you, being an entrepreneurship Sydney, you know, for those that have just joined in, the Sydney mentions that he's been an entrepreneurship for almost 1213 years. That's a long time. That's a long time. I've been working total for about 1213 years, let alone being an entrepreneur for that long. Entrepreneur. I mean, it's, I think it's thrown around a bit vaguely, but it's a whole conversation. Wow. Wow. Workspace global. I mean, you've heard it from Sydney guys, you know, literally, you know, you can gain access instantly to a top tier design and dev team instantly get the designs you need. The website, whatever it is, they can do it, you know, and they can do it really quickly. I mean, I've tried their services really, really quickly. That's how quick workspace global can get your stuff to you in a matter of days. Even less than that, you can get your designs back to you and you can just focus on the main thing. The main thing. And I feel like when entrepreneurs have their hands in too many things, that's when you can start to lose the quality of them, the work that you're actually trying to deliver.

Sydney Sam [22:13 - 22:14]: Yeah, but this.

Adrian Daniels [22:14 - 23:21]: I'm really enjoying this conversation so far. I'm just going to take a moment just to. Just to remind you guys, if you guys have any questions for Sydney, as we're coming up to half as we're coming up to half time, if you have any questions for Sydney, please drop it in the chat. If you're on link, if you're on Instagram, drop it in the chat. If you're on Facebook, drop it in the chat. Let us know, you know, what you think of this conversation so far. I know it's Friday evening and the sun may be out where you are. If you're on YouTube, drop a message on the chat. Let us know if you have any questions for Sydney. If you're on LinkedIn, drop a message in the chat. Let us know what your thoughts are on today's conversation, and let us know if you have any questions for Sydney and workspace global team, and we can continue this conversation. All right. Okay, cool. And let us know where you're tuning in from, guys. If you're in a specific city, we'll love to know where you're tuning in from. If you're a specific country, we'll love to know where you're tuning in from. All right, brilliant. Okay, so let's keep this conversation going so far until we get some questions coming. Okay, so, Sydney. So basically, so with workspace global.

Sydney Sam [23:21 - 23:22]: Right?

Adrian Daniels [23:22 - 23:29]: So is the team spread across Africa, or did you say it's a remote team, isn't it? Right.

Sydney Sam [23:29 - 24:36]: It is a remote team. We have two offices. So our commercial office sits in London, where some of our senior team is. And then our talent office sits in Ghana, which handles the Africa end of the way. We manage our talent. So we prioritize hiring talent from Africa to be able to create more opportunities and create more jobs. We do have talent spread across, so some in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa mainly. For now, we are starting to branch slowly into francophone Africa as well, and then also into North Africa as time goes on. But all talent centers towards the talent office in Accra, which actually is also still a remote team. So it's very interesting that we do all these things and everyone's working from home. We have their kids on phone calls. It's still very cool. And then our London office handles business in the UK, in Europe and in the US, you know, so that's where we. That's basically how we structure, so.

Adrian Daniels [24:36 - 24:37]: Yeah, fantastic.

Sydney Sam [24:37 - 24:37]: Yeah.

Adrian Daniels [24:37 - 24:42]: And how do you manage different time zones? Like, do you have teams working different shifts?

Sydney Sam [24:42 - 25:20]: Yes, we do. So we do work a fairly long workday and then we have team people who cover certain hours. Right. So there is. The core hours are mainly on GMT time. We do stretch more towards the east african time zone as well. But then for the US, there are teams that catch those hours, you know, a bit later. So you will find that, you know, there's always people kind of, you know, awake, making sure that, you know, our customers are happy. But, yeah, it's been an interesting, you know, way to do things, especially because technology just makes things so easy nowadays, so. Absolutely.

Adrian Daniels [25:20 - 25:52]: Yeah, absolutely. I can imagine technology and also, you know, being in this game for a while has helped you to maybe trial and error and perfect certain things so that you can get to where you are reading now, which, you know, where workspace global is today. Okay. Yeah, I know you mentioned you had a few clients. A few notable clients that you mentioned. You know, some banks, etcetera. Are there any interesting success stories, case studies, testimonies that you want to share with the audience? Anyway, moments?

Sydney Sam [25:53 - 27:41]: There's been a lot, but I always remember when back in the day, you know, we built the website for the Ghana airport. And so basically, you know, flight schedules, you know, everything that people are accessing, they still actually use our infrastructure right now. It does feel a little, you know, it was more suited to that time. And obviously, if we were going to do it again today, we would have done it differently. But, you know, building the website for Ghana airport was also really strong. We built the website for the Ghana Stock Exchange as well. You know, following very specific and very strict government guidelines, we did that. The kind of financial markets as well. We worked with Mass Africa to help build some of the brand identities for their programs, which is something that we're also very proud of. There's a company called c 40 Cities, which is one of the biggest sustainability companies in the world. We help them build about five of their climate action plans. In Paris, in Dakar, in Lagos, I think in Ghana. We also did that stuff. There was also a time where we worked, we had a video production, a full on in house video production team. And so we worked with the UN in six countries in East Africa to go in and film, including South Sudan. We had a team that was on ground that went into film some of the impact work that we were doing there. So that's also been really, really cool, amazing. Over 300 startups, which we're really proud of as well, you know. So, yeah, I mean, if I dig through the weeds, you know, we did stuff for Johnny Walker, you know, helping an agency launch their 100 year edition of products. So we did the design and stuff for that.

Adrian Daniels [27:41 - 27:42]: Wow.

Sydney Sam [27:42 - 27:58]: Yeah. I mean, I, I can go on and on. That's, that's. Yeah, because when you, when you go deep, you recognize that we've done a lot, like, you know, there's a company called Wye, which is Garner's, the West African Education Council. We did stuff for them.

Adrian Daniels [28:00 - 28:00]: Good old.

Sydney Sam [28:00 - 28:01]: I can keep going.

Adrian Daniels [28:02 - 28:02]: Yeah.

Sydney Sam [28:04 - 28:26]: So, yeah. Wieck Goyle, Vra, that's the water river authority. Like, if we, it goes deep. If we, if we want to go in, we've touched a lot of things. A lot of things that you see in town just go like, oh, yeah, that was a workspace thing. I even get surprised sometimes, you know, as to how, how far in we've been. So, yeah, we've, in terms of big names, that's, that's kind of where, where we've done. Yeah.

Adrian Daniels [28:27 - 29:06]: Fantastic. Wow. I mean, that's, that's a fantastic body of work. And I think, you know, we just need to give you a round of applause. That's fantastic body of work, Sydney. Now shout out to you guys. Um, I think what is amazing is just the, the number of industries that you're able to tap into. But also what I really love as well is the fact that these are huge companies. They could literally have their own in house teams, but they still managed to reach out to you. Why do you think that is, Sydney? Why do you think that is? These are huge names you've all mentioned.

Sydney Sam [29:07 - 30:39]: So I think everyone knows what their strong suits are. And sometimes you can even have a high level in house team team. But then if you're not very equipped to manage them, you know, the quality kind of, you know, goes, goes astray. So it's like if you're in the financial likes, let's say, the Garner stock exchange, it just makes sense for them to work with people who wake up in the morning and think about branded creative, because they are like, they handle stocks, they handle numbers, they handle markets, and that's just what they do. So I think even for us at workspace, we, you know, when it comes to legal, we always outsource legal when it comes to, you know, there's certain things that we do because we know we're not. That's not our thing. Right. And I think there's some value there, you know, to ensure that you're getting the best of the best. And so. Yeah, and I think a lot of people also appreciate that we're an african homegrown team, even though we operate on a global level, you know. So that also gives us a bit of an advantage to understanding the, the context of the continent and, you know, the way people want to work. So that's also really cool. The diaspora has been very kind to us again. So it's like, you know, people in the US and people in the UK do work with us a lot. But also I do find that there's a, there's a close affinity to supporting our own, so that also really helps, you know, you know, to get work done. So, yeah, I think we appeal to the hearts of a lot of, a lot of groups, I would say so that's just also helped our success.

Adrian Daniels [30:39 - 31:05]: Yeah. Brilliant. Wow. I mean, that's really incredible. It's really incredible that you're able to kind of work these companies and they actually recognize that. Wait, wait a minute. We aren't necessarily the experts in this and we don't want to kind of get sidetracked doing all the design, branding stuff, etcetera, rather hand over to someone that knows exactly what they're doing. They wake up in the morning and they eat, sleep, breathe branding and design.

Sydney Sam [31:05 - 31:07]: Breathe this stuff. Yeah, exactly.

Adrian Daniels [31:07 - 31:30]: It makes perfect sense. I think the diaspora as well. And that's, that's a beautiful thing about the african diaspora in community is, you know, you know, there are some of them out there that do want to support their own. And I think there is a movement right now where we're seeing this whole black owned movement where people want to support their own example. Yeah. They want to put money into this person's pocket rather than that person's pocket, you know.

Sydney Sam [31:31 - 31:31]: Yeah.

Adrian Daniels [31:31 - 31:46]: So I think there's an aspect of that as well where you would see the benefit. And I think it's really beautiful. The sea and, you know, if we're going to build Africa, you know, we have to come together like this, otherwise we aren't going to get to where the Africa has the potential to get to, you know, to get to.

Sydney Sam [31:46 - 31:47]: Exactly.

Adrian Daniels [31:47 - 31:48]: So workspace.

Sydney Sam [31:49 - 33:11]: Yeah, I will add to that. I mean, one thing I would say is that I have been paying attention to the global startup ecosystem for a very long time. And, you know, in terms of where the world is getting its talent, there's a lot of focus on India. There's a lot of focus on, you know, on different countries. You know, every, every set of every region of the world has had its time. And I think it's about time that Africa does show up to, you know, support the global startup ecosystem. And so that's something that we're very passionate about because we believe that startups everywhere should be able to have access to the value that we're giving. But then Africa is at the bedrock of that. Right? We are the foundation. We're providing the talent. We're showing the world that we can have high quality talents. They have very good value. We can use technology, we can drive AI. I'm very proud of that, because if you look at the way our clientele is so spread across, you'd be very surprised that this is a country that a company that was formed from Ghana that is just doing things, you know, on the same level as, like, you know, quite a few international organizations. So I'm very proud of that. I just want to say that, you know, the african talent that we have is showing up and is delivering good quality, you know, for brands all across the.

Adrian Daniels [33:11 - 35:36]: Yeah, beautiful, beautiful. Well, um, this is a beautiful story. And we are part of something bigger, you know, workspace global, we're all part of something bigger, which is to build this Africa. And, um, you know, like, it's time for Africa to shine, honestly, it really is time. You know, India had its time. Certain countries had its time, like you said, which is a very, very good point. It's time that Africa has its time to shine. And workspace global, hopefully, it's going to be up there for sure. Really, really love the work you do in Sydney. Once again, guys, I'm just going to take a moment just to remind the audience, if you guys are still with us, okay, we are taking questions for Sydney, the workspace workspace global team. If you have any questions for Sydney, the workspace global, or anything about our conversation, our discussion today, please drop it in the chat. We're still live on Instagram. If you're on Instagram and you're saying that you can't really see us, or it's not very clear, head over to our YouTube channel, head over to a Facebook page. It's a lot more clearer there. This is all new fast on your Instagram, what's on, what's on the computer. This is all different. If you're on Facebook, you should be able to see us loud and clear. Drop a message in the chat if you can hear us. And if you have any questions for Sydney, please do let us know if you're on YouTube. Please do give us a question. If you're, if you're still watching us and if you're on, I believe, all the other platforms, please keep tuned here as we continue on this discussion. Thank you very much. That's ay 30 says very insightful. Thank you so much for the, for the comments. Sharing a lot of insights today regarding workspace global. And let's see what else we have here. I think that's it. For the meantime, we've had a lot of people join in Instagram, which is great, coming in and out. The platform, LinkedIn, you know, we have quite a bit of a interaction, but let's just keep it posted here. Let's keep it locked. Okay, so, well, this has been a good conversation so far. I believe it's a, you know, it is a sunny, it is a sunny Friday. So, you know, there's not always, you know, a lot of engagement, but let's, let's keep it locked here. So workspace global, right? How do you, how do you kind of, how do you weigh up against the fibers, the upworks of this world design crowd? How do you, how do you compare?

Sydney Sam [35:38 - 39:06]: Yeah, I would say, I mean, they are ahead of us in relation to getting to the global market. We are on the climb. We are a rising company. So fiverr upwork are freelance networks, where you go in, you find the talent, I mean, based on ratings, etc. Etc. You engage the talent, you tell them what you want, and then they get that done for you. And then five hour upwork will manage the payment, you know, in relation to that. So there is some value, you know, in relation to that. But what we have above these people is all these, these networks, is that, number one, finding the talent is a little, takes, takes a little bit of time, you know, and not everyone knows. Yeah, not everyone knows who a good talent is, number one. Number two, one thing people really underestimate is how hard it is to articulate your vision, tell somebody what you want them to do, because sometimes the language that you're speaking is not the same language that the creators understand. Right. So not having that guided access to delivering, sharing your vision can be a bit of a challenge which workspace has taken into account, and it's making sure that when you're sharing your vision, it's very easy. You can pick pictures. So it's very easy for us to understand what you're trying to do. So that's another thing I've already mentioned, finding people. We do that for you. Having an access to a project manager, especially if you're running multiple projects at the same time, is a big relief because you want to talk to just one person. You don't want to have to follow up. You don't want to have to go like, hey, when am I getting this? Okay, there's a lot that you already handle. You're in meetings and stuff like that. You get access to a dedicated project manager for free as part of your service, whereas working with these freelance networks, you're on your own. You have to manage that interaction as well. And I know they say that if the work is not good and until you're satisfied, they don't pay the person, which is fair, which makes sense. But then we also have to consider that this is man hours that these, this talent puts in. Right. And sometimes it's not always because the person doesn't, is intending to screw you over, and that's why they messed up the work. Right. So we have creative director. Yeah. So we have creative directors on hand to ensure that there's success between both the client and the talent. So it's not like the talent is on their own to just try and figure this out. We ensure that they deliver exactly what you want so that you get what you want. But they also are able to get paid, so that support is also missing on some of those platforms to ensure that everybody wins. So that's where we match up to some of these platforms. And actually, I would say we are better significantly. It's just that they have a lot more scale. But as we build scale, we know that people are just going to go like this. Makes more sense to just subscribe and get whatever I want versus finding an individual person to do every single thing that I'm looking for. That's what I say. There are also a few other platforms, like Superside, who is a company that I actually really admire. They also have a design subscription at scale, but the subscriptions start at $5,000, so. Exactly. So.

Adrian Daniels [39:09 - 39:10]: That'S what I thought.

Sydney Sam [39:10 - 39:15]: Yeah. But it just gives you the.

Adrian Daniels [39:16 - 39:16]: The.

Sydney Sam [39:16 - 39:48]: For you to understand what goes into the kind of work that they're doing. The kind of work that we're doing. Someone is charging a minimum of $5,000 a month. Right. And we are offering that. Yeah. And we are offering that service to you from $200 a month. You know, I mean, obviously we have higher tiers, but you can see how we're able to create, like, the access, you know, for people who have a lower budget. And it doesn't mean we're a lower quality product. We're just designed for a different target market. So that's what I would say regarding that.

Adrian Daniels [39:48 - 40:13]: Fantastic. That's really insightful, Sini, thanks for sharing that. And it's really great to hear that you know exactly where you sit in the market. But at the same time, you've seen some of the pain points of some of these platforms, as big as they are, as much scale as they have, and you've been able to be, like, you've been able to kind of like, maybe take those pain points and make them, you know, an advantage or strength in workspace globally.

Sydney Sam [40:13 - 40:13]: Exactly.

Adrian Daniels [40:13 - 40:41]: You know, so, yeah, you may go on fiverr upwork or whatever is, and you may not have a project manager or, you know, you may, you may get or maybe on your other side of those platforms and someone's doing all the legwork and I'm not getting paid for it, or, you know, or, you know, you're able to, or you're paying a certain amount of money just for one particular design. Design, and that's it, you know, or you're limited to how many, how many changes you can make, etc. Etc.

Sydney Sam [40:41 - 40:44]: We say, we'll revise you. Happy? Yep.

Adrian Daniels [40:44 - 42:50]: Yeah. So I like how you look. You've looked at the market and you've created a z, unique product, which is not, which is fantastic. You know, it takes the best from some of these platforms, but it's also accessible for those who are everyday entrepreneurs, startups or smaller businesses. And for those that don't have those $5,000, they can get in from $200, you know, which is significantly more less. It's a fraction of that cost. At the end of the day, I think the biggest thing that I've seen with design work, etcetera, is always that kind of like time, that trade off of time and the quality. So sometimes when someone is paying, you know, a low amount, they usually expect them to get, like, a low quality product and sometimes may not be happy with it. But I think what it's great with you guys is that you have this subscription model going on where, you know, the person's paying a certain amount, but they're able to access a different variety of products or services where they can get a range of things, you know, within that specific, you know, subscription within a month, you know. So it's very easy what the chances of them being happy is a lot more because variety that you have access to. So I think this is a brilliant, brilliant business model that you have works this, you've got a fantastic product. And, um, it's quite interesting because I always hear that there's definitely one or two people I've come across that said, ah, we are going to build up work of Africa. We're going to build the fiber of Africa. And, you know, lo and behold, you've been building something like this for quite some time and, you know, you haven't, you have it all along and, you know, you've got seats to prove it. Working these big, big companies as well as the smaller companies, I think it just shows that you can, you proved yourself that you can work with the workspace, people can work with the bigger companies, but also they can work with the smaller companies, but the market they prefer to serve is the everyday entrepreneurs, smaller freelancer, the small, this small business. So it's really fantastic to see. Yeah, cool. Great. Awesome.

Sydney Sam [42:50 - 44:43]: I was gonna add, I was gonna add those. So there are a few other things that we do to support people who sign on. So entrepreneurs don't always have access to coaching. So we do integrate that if you want it to speak to someone about your brand, because you don't always know what you want to do. So if you subscribe, you do have access to a coach who can help you with what you're looking to do. So that's something that is very helpful. Another thing is also that just in case anything goes wrong, in the rare case that anything goes wrong with your product, we can swap the person who's working on it. And sometimes we have two, three people working on the same thing. So you do get a good set of. That's why we're very fast, because it's not always that just one person gets your stuff, that we're able to break projects into pieces and three people can work on something at the same time. We make sure that they all look the same. They are the quality that you want, and then we would hand that over to you. So that's also, you know, a big, a big advantage in relation to that as well. So, yeah, those are just a few things that I wanted to add. You know, we are launching the workspace support network, which gives you access to freebies and discounts in like, co working spaces or, you know, other platforms, other things that help entrepreneurs as well. So with your subscription, you might be able to access some of that. So that's something that, you know, we're also investing in as we create partnerships, you know, across the world. So, yeah, so we're, I mean, we're really, really in for, you know, the startup and the entrepreneur just to make sure that like, you know, you have as much as, as much as you need to be able to get where you're going. So, yeah, just wanted to add that.

Adrian Daniels [44:43 - 45:47]: That's brilliant. So it sounds like you're having value in so many different areas, you know, like the way you deliver support to subscribers, but also the things that you're adding to existing subscribers, you know, like the co working space, access and things like that. I think this is really important because I think, I think we live in a world where, you know, there's people that, you know, they have a habit of canceling subscriptions, you know, and I think sometimes depending on what product or service it is, it may be getting harder and harder to keep someone as a subscriber or to retain the subscription, you know, to reduce churn, which is what I'm trying to say. So I think you, I think, I love the way that workspace global is constantly innovating and finding ways to add value to their end user, to add value to the subscriber, to enable them to continue to stay on as a subscriber and to be, to get maximum value from their money. Because you're basically saying this is how much dollars you're giving and we value every single dollar that you're giving us. So we want to give you every single dollar back times five or whatever it is.

Sydney Sam [45:48 - 45:49]: Exactly. Exactly.

Adrian Daniels [45:49 - 45:52]: So much more value that they don't want to leave. That they don't want to cancel.

Sydney Sam [45:52 - 45:54]: Yeah. Yeah.

Adrian Daniels [45:54 - 45:56]: So it must be interesting.

Sydney Sam [45:57 - 47:14]: Yeah. I mean, you know, so the one key thing that we're doing is we have launched the email marketing service and the social media management service. So sometimes people come in and are able to build their brand identity and all that stuff in the beginning, but then to stay on, they just want to have access to a team that is just managing their social media or managing their email marketing. As I said, we will expand that as time goes on. So even though you probably have a social media team, you can still request for random designs that come up as well. So that's another thing that keeps people in the pipeline, you know, and we're branded agnostic. So if you have a subscription and you know, there's someone, you know, let's say your partner also has a business, they can come or hop on to your, your subscription to be able to use, you know, some of your hours, you know, the subscription, because we don't live. Yeah. We don't limit you to just one brand. We do limit the number of tasks you can recommend at a time. But as long as you have open time, you can use that with somebody, you know, with someone to help someone else as well. So that's also pretty, a pretty cool thing as well in relation to service.

Adrian Daniels [47:15 - 47:30]: Fantastic. Fantastic. So if someone's not, if someone feels like maybe they don't have a task that they can ask works for, they can make a request for from workspace global four, someone else can kind of use that subscription and request something.

Sydney Sam [47:30 - 47:33]: Yeah, someone, you know. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Adrian Daniels [47:33 - 47:39]: And how do you police that? How do you police that to make sure it's like a random person that's just hacked into the subscription?

Sydney Sam [47:39 - 49:01]: Well, I mean, there would be people who would try to take advantage of the service. I mean, definitely. Right. That we have had people who try to build, like, entire, you know. Yeah. The entire client base of, you know, ten people. They want to use the. Yeah, but, but the way it's designed, it's a very robust structure where you can't really, you know, abuse us because there is a limit. There is a limited number of, there's a limited number of things you can ask. So as long as you ask for one thing, you still have to wait till that is done. Right. And then, you know, so it's like you're using your own time. Right. Unless you are trying. I mean, yeah, it's, the cases where somebody takes, really takes advantage of the system are very, very limited because we put in those guardrails. But obviously, we're open to learning. You know, we might get somebody who's very smart, who wants to do certain things, and then we will just take that into account and just try to improve this. But again, I really believe that, you know, people are inherently good in some, in most cases. So this is something we're trying to do to support the ecosystem. So please don't, like, you know, it's not the healthiest thing to try and, like, knock us down. We're trying to do something good, you know, and just be a good person. And you're also working with us. That's just what we.

Adrian Daniels [49:01 - 50:58]: So. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure that's something that would rarely happen. But I guess, you know, from time to time, things like this do happen. I mean, we're in a world where there's, you know, there's cyber threats and, you know, there's scams, there's impersonation fishing. There's all sorts of strange things happening on the Internet, and I guess safety and privacy, I think, is really important as well for customers, which is a big trending thing. So it's good to hear that you've got things in place to put a police when things like this try to happen as well. This is fantastic. Brilliant. Just want to take another moment. You're welcome. Welcome, Sydney. Just want to take another moment, guys. Just remind you that the floor is open. If you have any questions for Sydney or any questions for Sydney regarding workspace global or anything that you've heard in the discussion, please get your, please get your comments or your questions in the chat, and Sydney would be happy to, you know, ask them. I mean, we'll come up to the final few minutes if there's anything that you want to ask Sydney regarding workspace global. If there's any questions you have, please do get in the chat. Other than that, let us know where you're tuning in from, what city you, what state, what country you're coming in from, and let, and let us know, you know, how you heard about this, this, this live Q and a as well. It'd be great to hear from the audience. You know, I do appreciate it's a Friday evening or Friday afternoon, wherever you are, but it'd be great to hear from you as well. But, yeah, we are coming up to, coming up on time soon. So if you have any, any words, any comments, any questions for Sydney and the team, please do get your messages in the chat. We are live on, once again on Facebook, on LinkedIn. We're live on YouTube, and we're live on Instagram. If you're on Instagram and looks a bit funny, please do come over to YouTube. As we know, we are kind of testing this for the first time. I believe it may not look exactly the right way, but, yeah, come, come and join us on the final few minutes on YouTube if it looks a bit funny. Okay. Okay, great. Sydney, this has been fantastic conversation so far.

Sydney Sam [50:58 - 50:59]: Thank you so much.

Adrian Daniels [50:59 - 51:08]: I'm aware that, you know, you have something for the audience, for those of you, for those people that want to give workspace Google a try or want to, want to check you guys out.

Sydney Sam [51:08 - 51:09]: Yeah, yeah.

Adrian Daniels [51:09 - 51:11]: Could you tell us a bit more about that?

Sydney Sam [51:12 - 52:36]: So what we're doing in, especially in partnership with sound of a crowd, is to just give the sound of a crowd audience and community access to dollar 50 worth of workspace services, which means you get access to our platform for seven days to make, to make at least one request just to get a feel of it, understand how legit this is. I'm sure people have, their skeptics are skeptical in some cases, but then for you to just really just experience this at no risk, and I promise you that it will impress you and you will definitely sign on later down the line. So I will drop a link here, which is workspaceglobal.com. so go to workspaceglobal.com. forward slash free trial. Okay? It is a private link, so it's just literally being exposed to the sign of a product community. You can go there and then subscribe to one week of using the subscription and, you know, just, just connect with us. Get assigned to your project manager, see how it feels, you know, just so that you can know for yourself that this is something that, you know, can support your business. So I really appreciate if all of you could go over, you know, just at least check out the website, understand what it's about, and then if you want to try it out, you know, just, you know, go to the link that has been shared and you should be, you should be very happy. That's. That's one thing I would say. Yeah.

Adrian Daniels [52:36 - 53:56]: Fantastic. Thank, thank you so much, Sydney, for sharing that. Really, really appreciate that. So, you know, we're going to keep this conversation going. Please do get your comments. If you have anything, anything you want to say, you know, anything, any, any comment, anything that you want to ask Sydney, please do get it in the chat. Once again, we're live on YouTube. We're live on Instagram. We are live on all these different platforms. Um, we have a message from, on YouTube from Aaron Ayamgar. He says. So I know his brother went to Yale. He's very deep, too. Is there something in their formative years that we can do to help our kids be out Sunday? Something at the same time, which is brilliant. Yeah. So I'll put that in the. I'll throw that to the audience. For those of you who weren't able to see that, those of you who can't see that on your platform, because this question is coming in from YouTube. So it says. So I know his brother went to Yale. He's very deep, too. Is there something in their formative years that we can do to help our kids be outstanding? Thank you for that comment, Aaron. Sydney. Yeah. I mean, that is. That is true.

Sydney Sam [53:56 - 53:56]: Yes.

Adrian Daniels [53:56 - 54:11]: Sydney, you do. When you did, you did head over to the States and you spoke at Yale, which is one of the Ivy League university. So congratulations. I mean, you are buying a flag for us in Africa. Tell us a bit about that and how people can be outstanding like yourself.

Sydney Sam [54:12 - 55:54]: Yeah, well, so it's not really just about me. So. Actually, what he's talking about is my brother did go to Yale and did his masters at Tait University, and then my younger brother. So the one after me went to Yale, the one after me went to Brown University. So they're both Ivy leaguers. Both have done their masters at very prestigious schools and are working in very senior roles as well in the organizations that they're in in the US. So, yeah, so my parents were juicing us up with something, I would say, because, yeah, I'm very proud of my brothers. My brother is. The last born is. I think he's just 25 now, and he's a financial manager of procter and gamble, which I'm very excited about. Fantastic. The one after me, he topped the entire Africa for sats. So that's something I always say everywhere, you know, so that's. Yeah, but anyway, so they do make me look pretty dumb. But it's okay. It's fine. We're all. We're all. No, but I think. I mean, the one thing is that my parents weren't afraid to expose us to a lot of different things. We had encyclopedias all over the house. We were always in stuff. And so I just encourage that, you know, you're very intentional about, you know, what you expose your kids to, you know, as long as possible, so don't leave them when they go to high school, you know, keep pushing them out there, you know, into spaces that they may not be able to know on their own. And naturally, their ambitions grow bigger, you know, with the level of exposure that they have. So that's. That's just one thing that I would recommend. But to be honest, I give all thanks to God. All glory to God there.

Adrian Daniels [55:54 - 55:55]: I don't.

Sydney Sam [55:55 - 55:58]: I don't. I don't think we personally could have done any of this.

Adrian Daniels [55:58 - 57:37]: Amen. So, yeah, amen. Amen. I mean, you've built an impressive business, Sydney. And, you know, you're amazing person. Incredible person. You're doing incredible things. Yeah. Well, there you have it, guys. You know, put, you know, put your kids out on the comfort zone. Take them out of their comfort zone and stretch them, and they'll become amazing. Like Sidney and his brothers, his Ivy League brothers. But, yeah, guys, you know, those of you, you know, watching on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, you know, try workspace global for free. You have a 50. $50 coupon from Siddy and his team, you know, give it a try. If you need any design works, ditch their freelancer and agency headaches. Ditch those headaches. Come over to workspace global. I've tried them myself. We don't endorse anything that we haven't tried that's ours. We've tried them ourselves. And honestly, you know, I'm yet to, I need to give my video testimonial, but they're fantastic. You know, I do recommend them, highly recommend them. Try them for free. Workspaceglobal.com forward slash free trial if you're watching on any of the platforms right now, if you look at the link, look on the description below, check the description below, or check the live chats. You will be able to grab the link there and you can go and go out and try your free trial. Tell them that you came from us and, and let us know and let us know what you guys thought. Certainly it's been a fantastic interview. I know we're on time now. The time is just flown by. You know, we did have a few comments and a few, you know, questions come in, which a couple, one question came in, which, which is, which is not bad because it is Friday. Is there any last kind of final words, announcements, anything that you want to say to the audience before we close out?

Sydney Sam [57:37 - 58:06]: Yeah, I mean, the main thing is, I think, I feel like the us entrepreneurs, the army, that needs to create change, we're well motivated, we're very close to our communities. We know what the problems are. So I really just want to encourage everyone out there who is tackling a problem to just keep going. You know, there's a lot of us out there who are supporting you, so just make that bold step start and keep pushing. And then, yeah, I think we're all going to make a really huge impact.

Adrian Daniels [58:09 - 58:15]: Fantastic. Just before you go quickly, any, anything exciting in a pipeline regarding workspace global?

Sydney Sam [58:17 - 59:02]: That's a good question. Currently we're just building customer base, so that's the main thing. We are rolling out new services, so we might be adding some three d AI generation services also coming, moving on. So we will keep expanding. Yeah, we'll keep expanding what you can get, you know, with the same subscription so that, you know, if you have, you know, 3d product modeling, prototyping that you want to also access, you can do that as well. So, yeah, so that's the one thing that I say people can look forward to. But for now, you know, just the platform is really good and we just want more people to try that on. So I think that's just going to be our priority. Yeah, but, yeah.

Adrian Daniels [59:02 - 1:00:31]: Brilliant. Fantastic. And there you have it again, guys. Try them out for free. Workspaceglobal.com for free. Www. Dot workspace global.com free trial. You will be able to try their service to see if it's for you and for your team. So if you're, if you, if you're tired of getting the headaches on different platforms or you're tired of working with, you know, different types of freelancers, whatever, and you get different types of headaches, just ditch the freelancer headaches, ditch the agency headaches. Come over to Workspace global, tap into a top tier team, design team and dev team, and let workspace global take away all your headaches and focus on the design and brand work so you can focus on what you do best as a small business owner, as an entrepreneur, or as a startup. Sydney. Sam, you've been fantastic. Thank you for joining us on sound of a crowd podcast. Our season six sponsors. We will continue to, we're going to continue to slam their ads in front of you as you continue to watch us on season six, as we'll continue on this week and next week and for the coming. How many weeks we've got left? Oh, boy. We've got probably about, I think we've got about seven episodes left. Eight episodes. So we've got eight more weeks of workspace global to just, just to, just to crab in front of you guys. So we're going to make sure that we brainwash you with workspace global until you, you wake up in your, until you wake up in your sleep, your first baby's word is going to be workspace global watch.

Sydney Sam [1:00:33 - 1:00:35]: All right, no problem.

Adrian Daniels [1:00:35 - 1:00:38]: Thank you so much, Cindy. I'll let you go. Thank you, guys. Take care.