This week, Adrian speaks to Joannes "Joe" Hotagua, founder of Authentic African, a platform that helps African Artisans sell their products around the world. Joannes also owns the popular Authentic African YouTube channel and instagram page.
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OvmsYp0smf4
He is a passionate advocate for African startups and entrepreneurs.
In this episode:
-Joannes takes us on a journey through his own entrepreneurial endeavours, from starting an e-commerce store selling African products to his transition into content creation on platforms like Instagram and YouTube.
-We'll delve into the reasons behind Joannes' shift in focus, his exploration of the African tech industry, and the opportunities it holds for both startup founders and investors alike.
-Throughout the episode, Joannes shares his experiences and insights, highlighting the importance of diversity and inclusivity in the tech industry and the power of storytelling to make a positive impact.
-We'll also learn about Joannes' day job, working with brands to find their audiences online, and how their expertise in marketing and content creation has shaped their entrepreneurial journey.
Show Notes: https://www.thesoundofaccra.com/joannes
Connect with Joannes & the Authentic African brand
Follow Authentic African on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AuthenticAfrican
Follow Authentic African on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Authentic_African/
Visit the website: https://authenticafrican.com/
Check out Swiff: https://bit.ly/SwiffSOA
Download Menufinder Africa App: https://www.menufinderafrica.com/
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Our Website: https://thesoundofaccra.com
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:02 Icebreaker
02:26 What is Authentic African and more about Joe
03:52 Africans should be the first to invest in Africa
05:00 The year of return 2019
06:06 Sierra Leone
07:20 Sandbox
10:10 Digital Africa Gold Rush
13:25 The rise of African Tech Startups
16:49 The Gold Rush
17:50 Authentic African
23:40 YouTube vs Instagram
25:35 Doing Vlogs and Instagram stories
28:40 Quitting well paid job and relocating to Ghana
32:20 Finding purpose in Africa with western skills
36:20 Working at Jumia vs Hulu
41:31 Advertising for Africa
44:10 Outsourcing Authentic African brand tasks
46:00 2023 plans - expanding the Authentic African brand
49:40 Outro
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00:00:00
Hey guys, Adrian here from The Sound of Accra Podcast. This is your first
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time listening. This to show where we speak with top Ghanaian founders, entrepreneurs,
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and creatives worldwide with the aim of leaving you
00:00:11
behind a meaningful takeaways that you can apply in life, business, and career.
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For today's show that However, to thesoundofaccra.com/joannes. That's the
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thesoundofaccra.com/joannes. That's j o
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a n n e s. Yes.
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If you're watching the YouTube,
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please like, subscribe. Let us know what you think in the comments below in the
00:00:32
YouTube or podcast description players. And if you're listening on Apple,
00:00:36
Spotify, a 5 star reviews very much appreciated. I would like
00:00:40
to welcome Joannes to the show. Thank you so much for coming, man.
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Of course. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much. It was great to kind
00:00:47
of catch up in person. Finally, at of the cafe
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is also. Yes. Kukun. Kukun. That's yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Always forget
00:00:54
the name of it. Yeah. And, of course, before that, we have the authentic cafe
00:00:58
can interview me on your YouTube channel. And I did. I promise that I'll return
00:01:02
the favour. Here we are today. Here we are. We just had some, happened behind
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the scenes. And, oh my gosh, well, a day it's been just trying
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to record each day. Yeah. But, it's an interesting one,
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but I'm glad that we're finally doing this interview. So I'm really happy to have
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here at the show. Just for you guys, just just in case you guys don't
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know, Johannes is an adviser. He's got the 16 years of professional
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experience helping startups monetize their digital assets and Fortune
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500 brands to reach their target customers through online advertising.
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And he's always been growing back and forth, you know, in since 2020 between
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Sierra Leone and Ghana, except and he's also the founder of authentic African. So
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it's a YouTube channel, but also more than that it's a it's a e commerce
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platform. So much more than that, but he wasn't gonna get into the the whole
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of it. So, yeah, I'm really really glad to have you in the show. Of
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course, you know, we we that person and and also, you
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interviewed me and, of course, I need to be back today. Yeah, and
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then also, I think, yeah, also, we shall add to her. I mean, she did
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a nice intro, which led me to us having that interview, and now we're
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here today. So -- Right. You are from talking to you are from talking to
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John's travel. Thank so much for the intro. We'll leave a link below or in
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the podcast, show notes of her website so you
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guys can go check her out. So, yeah, that's get straight into the show. So,
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just just from your perspective, to just tell us an innovative picture about yourself and
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authentic African Sure. So, you know, what I usually say on my
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YouTube videos is I'm an authentic well, sorry.
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I say on my YouTube videos. I'm a Sierra Leone American. Well,
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first of all, my name is Joannis or Joe Hataka. Some people call me
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Joe. I'm a Sierra Leone American. Living in a Krogana
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back and forth between Sierra Leone and Ghana. So I'm building a house in Sierra
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Leone. I have a business there. I have my dual citizenship between the US and
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Sierra Leone. But I've made a career and I live currently in
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Ghana full time. So that's a little bit about me. Authentic
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african is a platform really meant to bridge the gap between the
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diaspora and the continent of Africa, specifically West Africa where I spend most
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of my time. So I started by just sharing my story moving
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to the, West Africa and and dealing with some of
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the challenges of Ojala we talked about. Right? But then also the good element
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to it too, and really trying to help people understand what it's like to make
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that move or to visit. And then ideally longer term, I
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wanna spend more time you know, highlighting
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entrepreneurs, companies, and businesses, so that people start
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investing their dollars. You know, especially black Americans
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who are looking for another place to invest their dollars. I think,
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the continent of Africa is where it's at. And, I think we should
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be more involved, as opposed to the folks who are, the
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majority of the funders of of companies here on the Oh,
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absolutely. We should. I mean, there are some
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upsets of people seeing foreigners getting involved, you know,
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like, taking our assets or trying to convince
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us to take our assets or manipulating us to take our assets. So we
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definitely we should get more involved in. I think I have I think I read
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or heard the article that they were I think they sacked some foreign
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employees from a particular project because they want more
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and more gardens to be involved. Right. It's an interesting time that we're in.
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I think a lot of Africans are waking up to seeing the potential and the
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spending of the coffee agreed. 100%. And and and it's bringing
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and Ghana's done a great job of bringing the aspirants back too. I
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came for the year of return in 2019. I'd only been to Sierra Leone, and
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came to God and fell in love. And a year later, I moved. Beautiful. I
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can't believe it. So the year return on the wood, there was that the driver
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for you to move to golf? Yeah. So I, you know, I was with my
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friends in Sierra Leone the previous year and shout out to Ivy Prosper because she
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had been working hard on the beyond the return and the year of return
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social media. And so there was a bunch of videos that had gone viral
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of non Ghanaians in Ghana. And I was like, what is
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going on in Ghana in December that everybody's going to So, a group
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of friends of mine and I, we decided in 2018 that
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in 2019, we'd come to Ghana. We didn't even know what the year turn
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was. We just saw the viral videos. And so when I came, I wasn't
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just here for, you know, Afrocella, Afro nation,
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actually went and met with a company I had been advising. And they were
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working with multimedia group, which is one of the big,
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media houses here in Ghana. So I got a chance to go to their production
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room, join dot FM. I got to see them recording a radio show, the
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news. I was really impressed by everything that they were doing.
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And it would to me, it was like, this is the future that I can
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see Sierra Leone being. And so, you know,
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after about a year, you know, some so searching
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and some deep thought and a lot of conversations with, mentors on the
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continent people that I know that are here. I made the decision in July
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of 2020 move full time. But if if if it wasn't for that trip in
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2019, I would never have considered negative. Wow. So that trip
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basically kinda, like, gave you different perspectives of Ghana and is kinda made
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you think, ah, let me come and kind of interfere. Yeah. But but
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but before you came here, you've been you're spending time in Sierra as well as
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only Sierra Leone. I hadn't actually even been to Ghana as of yet. And so,
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you know, Sierra Leone is a much smaller country on the west coast of Africa.
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And, you know, for us, you know, we we always talk about the potential where
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we can be one day. And I know Ghanaian say the same thing about Ghana.
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But what was exciting for me was to see how far
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Ghana had progressed after hearing, some of the
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developmental challenges that you might have seen 20 or 30 years ago, which I do
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see today in Sierra Leone. And so for me, it was really exciting
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to, like I said, to see kind of where we're going as as as a
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continent, specifically in West Africa. And I knew that if I came
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to Ghana, you know, I would be able to learn a lot from this
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experience and do what I can to take what I'm learning and apply it
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back home in Sierra Leone. And I fell in love with Gotta. You know, that
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that 1 week I was here was enough to say, I'm gonna move
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to Gotta, and I did. And I'm I'm happy I made the decisions. Best decision
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I've ever Wow. That's that's that's incredible. I never really heard that many people
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saying that. Yeah. Because after what I've went through to before, it's for the
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interview. It will test your patience. It will. Oh my
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gosh. Definitely will test your patience. Do you think, geez, have you have
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you geez, maybe I might say this one way sir. Do you feel like
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you've been do you feel like Ghana has been a little bit of a sandbox
00:07:23
for you today to maybe try out and test things out in Sierra Leone because
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that's also in West Africa? I don't know if you I don't know if that
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makes sense. I mean, projects or entrepreneurial endeavors or maybe
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jobs that you've had in, maybe you're thinking, maybe I can try
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and get this right into there and maybe I can also consider this here in
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the other. I mean, I know students are sec second or further home to Yeah.
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Or maybe you might wanna be a bit more based up there than here, but
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you wanna use Scott as a kind of sandbox. Has that ever come to occur
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to you? Yeah. I mean, it it definitely it it
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first, it was really just where is the easiest transition
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for me? Like, if I'm moving to West Africa, I have because I'm an
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English speaker. I don't speak French. So it was to me, it was legos. --
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speak French as well. Yeah. There's, you know, there's the Franco phone West Africa. There's
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the Anglo phone West And when we're dealing with anglophone west Africa, it's really
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Legos, Abuja, maybe if if you wanna do those 2 cities in
00:08:15
in Nigeria, then you have a crowd. Right? And then for me, I also had
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freetown because of Sierra Leone. And so when I
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those are the options I had for myself. Legals is a
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is a bit stressful, we'll say. You know,
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it could be a stressful it's a stressful city. 30, almost 30
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people So very, very, highly
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densely populated city. And so
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and so I'd been there, but coming to a car just It kinda was a
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mix of the the two things that I really wanted where it was it was
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close enough in proximity. Obviously, English speaking
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culturally a bit different, but, at the very least, it was in the
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same general, area in west So there
00:09:00
were some similarities of some similarities in food. Some of the infrastructural
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challenges or challenges, that we all see.
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And Ghana has solved some of them. And so just learning
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from what Ghana has has done to kind of progress in those areas, I
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knew that I could take some of that and apply it back in
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Sierra Leone. So there was a little bit of what's the
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easiest transition for me right now. It's a cross. And then also what
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can I learn from there and and bring it back? Bring it back. So that's
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more of the faith. What can you learn from Ghana? You can go and apply.
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Yeah. Rather than going to be in some kind of sandbox. Yeah. Gotcha.
00:09:36
Gotcha. Gotcha. Alright. So I know you've been, you know,
00:09:40
in the digital advertising space for quite of times. You've worked for e
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commerce brands as well. Yep. Maybe maybe it's been a start ups. I
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think it makes sense to talk about the digital in gold
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rush. So right now, we've seen a lot of businesses, a lot of types
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of startups come up from the scene. I think just before the interview started, we
00:09:57
talked about my fintech. Yep. Of course, responsible as you vary the
00:10:01
season. What's your perspective on the
00:10:04
this this this gold rush, this digital gold rush that we see in Africa
00:10:08
Webbits? Foods, on demand foods, every business is, you know,
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whether it's like a global or food or whatever to Jumia, which you
00:10:15
use the work for. Right. To, you know, the app, you know, advertising
00:10:19
agencies or companies getting involved. Yep. Right. What's your perspective in
00:10:23
all of this and startups and fintechs as well? It's a great question. I mean,
00:10:26
I I would say at least it's in terms of the continent of Africa,
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there has last year was there was $5
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in investments in 2022. Up just a
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100 from 2021, terms of the total,
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funding amount, but there were a number of more
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companies that were funded. And Africa is the only
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continent of the 7 that's on increase in funding. Oh. And
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so, you know, Africa's always been known for its natural resources, what
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we have in the ground. And, of course, our human resources, we built
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the country of America. Right? So there's always been I
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think, now people are starting to recognize,
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the minds and the businesses that people are building on the continent and the digital
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ecosystem, you know, We just crossed over 40% as part of the
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continent in terms of, internet penetration.
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And so, you know, there's a little over a couple a billion people, about a
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billion people on the continent of Africa with 40% of them hitting the internet, most
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on mobile. A lot of people that's why I think
00:11:31
fintech is so important. Right? 33% of the, investment dollars
00:11:35
last year went to fintech because many people,
00:11:38
don't unbanked Right? So they they send money through their mobile
00:11:42
carriers, which is not something we do much in the States. We use, like, Venmo,
00:11:45
cash out, things like that, but the mobile carriers here allow you to
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transfer money between people. And my housekeeper actually uses it as a bank.
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She doesn't have a bank account. Yeah. Her mobile money account is her bank And
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that's a lot of people. A lot of people. Like the market women and --
00:11:59
Yeah. So, I think people on the outside are starting to realize that
00:12:03
these businesses can be large businesses, large scale businesses. And
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not only are they multinational businesses on the continent,
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but they could potentially be business models can be applied elsewhere. You know, there are
00:12:15
other emerging markets around the world in Asia and Latin America where people can apply
00:12:18
some of what Africa has done there because I think as a
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continent, the mobile advancements have been up even a little bit more
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than the states, you know, like, I know people had cell phones and have
00:12:29
been using cell phones for more things here on the continent than we did
00:12:33
in the states. So true. Like the mobile money concept and and things
00:12:37
like that. So peer to peer lending, all of those things. And so
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I I think the world is opening up to that and and realizing that.
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And so, you know, Africa is benefiting. We just need to
00:12:48
do a better job of making sure Africans are part of that process
00:12:52
of investing in the startups and more African indigenous
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Africans are the ones running the startups. Right? That's that's what we need to
00:13:00
see. We need to control the whole -- Yeah. The whole ecosystem. Yeah.
00:13:04
Yeah, I mean, it's it's, it's been incredibly,
00:13:08
it's been really awesome to see, you know, from from someone who came from the
00:13:12
states and I was into the whole Silicon Valley,
00:13:15
tech, you know, the 2 bubbles that I've been a part of. The the,
00:13:19
you know, the 2000 bubble that happened when I
00:13:23
was still in high school, but I watched it as it happened. And then, of
00:13:26
course, there was another bubble that happened, during the financial crisis
00:13:30
and seeing the businesses that came out of that and following how that went, you
00:13:34
know, like all the social media networks that came between
00:13:37
2002, and then the peer to peer lending
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or peer to peer, renting services like Airbnb and peer space and
00:13:45
all those things that came after the 2008 financial crisis. I
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saw and I was never able to participate in that.
00:13:53
Just because most people who do have complexion protection.
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They tend to they tend to be in the same group. It's a it's a
00:14:00
meritocracy, not a meritocracy, right, so that people who tend to invest in people who
00:14:04
look like them. True. But I did invest in a small startup at the time.
00:14:07
Some friends of mine started a, a streaming service. So I I
00:14:11
got a taste of it. And then I just, at
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some point, I don't know how it happened. I saw what was happening on the
00:14:17
continent of Africa, and I could see that it was the same thing that happened
00:14:20
in Silicon Valley. But on a broader scale, much
00:14:23
more wide, widely distributed. So, like, you have companies in South
00:14:27
Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, all doing completely different
00:14:31
things. We're even doing things in the same space but different. And
00:14:35
then you've seen some exits. Right? You've had a couple of unicorns, which
00:14:39
is a $100 company. That a $1? No.
00:14:42
$1 valuation. Right? So we've had a couple of those. --
00:14:46
Uh-huh. Yeah. Flooder wave, Jumia, IPO
00:14:49
2019. Yeah. PayStack. PayStack was acquired.
00:14:54
And so you had some really big exits on the continent, and
00:14:58
that really opened my eyes to the potential here. And so for me, it just
00:15:01
made sense for me to be a part of it. 1, to ensure that startups
00:15:05
that I that I meet with and that I get to know the founders of
00:15:08
get access to the same resources that their counterparts get access to in
00:15:12
Silicon Valley. But then also at the same time to ensure that
00:15:16
those people who are investing in those companies Silicon Valley. Do know what's
00:15:19
available to invest in here. So that's kind of what shifted my focus in terms
00:15:23
of my career going from advertising and now, focusing
00:15:27
more on advising startups and eventually getting into the
00:15:30
investment space. That's really been the catalyst for that is, like, kinda just watching
00:15:34
how, the continent of Africa has really, become
00:15:38
one of the premier places to to invest in tech. Can
00:15:41
imagine. It really has it really has, honestly, everyone's flocking to Africa
00:15:45
and $400 and the medians hit at the at the
00:15:48
continent. It's absolutely amazing to do you see that? Yeah.
00:15:52
And, I think what you're doing authentic African is
00:15:56
quite interesting because, I mean, if you've got this YouTube channel -- Yeah. -- it's
00:15:59
going great, and then you've got social media on the Instagram page, which is the
00:16:02
video off. It's a 1000 followers plus. 50, 535
00:16:06
as of this morning. Okay. Okay. I'm I'm a Aki
00:16:13
but you're doing great in terms of that, you know, online media and social
00:16:17
media platforms great. So in terms of yourself, how do you see
00:16:20
yourself kind of like getting more involved in this digital gold
00:16:24
rush using authentic Africa It's a great question. So,
00:16:28
you know, anytime the word Gold Rush is used to describe
00:16:31
something, I I always remind people of how
00:16:35
income was generated during the original gold rush. So the gold Russians, for those of
00:16:39
you who are not familiar, there was a gold rush in America, and, there's
00:16:43
a football team called the San Fran Cisco 40 niners. Their helmet is gold.
00:16:47
So they're red and gold. And the reason why it's gold is because of the
00:16:49
gold rush, and it was 1849. There was a gold rush I guess some people
00:16:53
found gold in San Francisco and everyone was flocking to the West Coast
00:16:56
of America to go find gold. 60% of the
00:17:00
income generated during that time was not people actually digging or
00:17:04
finding gold. It was people selling products and services. So major
00:17:07
companies that came out of that as Wells Fargo, which is Big Bank in the
00:17:10
United States, Levi Strauss, which is obviously a big jeans
00:17:14
company. And these companies came out of that time because they were providing services
00:17:17
for everybody going to find gold. So for me,
00:17:21
that is how I approach everything I do with authentic african is is
00:17:25
is being the bridge in providing services providing knowledge to those
00:17:29
people who are looking to to find gold. Right? So that's the
00:17:32
investors that are looking to dig for gold, which is investing in companies and
00:17:36
hoping to get a return. And that's the startup founders who are looking to start
00:17:40
a company and hopefully get some funding, maybe outside funding. And so
00:17:43
just offering those services in terms of, like, being able to
00:17:47
bring those investors to those companies and also being able to share those stories
00:17:51
with investors. And so I see that's where I kind of fit in. So
00:17:55
that evolved from the original state of authentic
00:17:58
Right? The original plan for authentic offering was an ecommerce store in the states
00:18:02
selling products made in Africa to America.
00:18:06
I had been going to Sierra Leone, and I remember buying a mask that was,
00:18:10
maybe equivalent to, like, $5. And I had my
00:18:14
apartment. I used to call it a modern. I would call it African modern. So
00:18:17
I had, like, all the most up to date furniture and
00:18:21
appliances and and all the devices and things, but I also had masks and carvings
00:18:25
all over my house. So you knew that I was African when you came to
00:18:28
my place. And I had a party one day, and somebody asked me how much
00:18:31
what I sell my last 4. I was like, I'm not selling it, but if
00:18:33
I did sell it, maybe I'd sell it for a hundred bucks. And she's like,
00:18:35
yeah, that seems reasonable. And it was a $100, I said, but I bought it
00:18:38
for 5. Was that a lot of momentum here? It was a light bulb moment.
00:18:41
So that night, I had already had an e commerce store that was focused
00:18:45
on the cannabis space, which I used to use. I used to use the
00:18:49
the gold rush to talk about the cannabis space because I was in California, and
00:18:52
California had is the 6 largest economy in the world. And they at
00:18:56
least at the time, which is insane, right, a state huge state. It's a huge
00:18:59
state. And it just has a state. It's the 6 largest economy in the world.
00:19:02
And so they were just now legalizing recreational use of cannabis. And
00:19:06
so for me, I wanted to provide services to those folks. So I had e
00:19:09
commerce store ran into an issue with Facebook shutting down my ads,
00:19:12
etcetera, etcetera. I was already thinking about what is the next e commerce store I'm
00:19:16
gonna start. And, it was that moment when I had that
00:19:20
conversation that the light bulb went off. So I consume some cannabis that
00:19:23
night, and then around 3 or 4 of you 3 or 4 AM that night,
00:19:27
or the next morning. Of course, it was legal
00:19:31
in the United States and California at the time recreational use only, you know, it
00:19:34
was available at that point in time. And so at that time,
00:19:38
started thinking about names for a business. And I was like, what works?
00:19:42
And I tried African imports, American imports,
00:19:46
and I landed on authentic african. And I thought about the the
00:19:50
diaspora flag with the fist in the middle and the red, black,
00:19:53
and green. And just all the different things that kind of
00:19:57
start flowing when you're when you're in the zone and you feel like you found
00:20:00
you you landed on something. Yeah. And so I launched the e commerce store a
00:20:03
month later. So that was January. I launched it on February 1st, like history
00:20:07
month in America. So there was a reason for that. And then I lost the
00:20:10
Instagram page at that time too. So that was that was February of 2019.
00:20:14
Wow. And that was the sole focus was to
00:20:17
really promote the e commerce store. And when I built the, the
00:20:21
started the Instagram page, I started thinking about how do I
00:20:25
provide more value than just posting product pictures.
00:20:29
So I started thinking about my feed and the things that I see in my
00:20:32
feed that I find interesting that sharing with all of my friends. You know, anytime
00:20:36
there was a a new president that said something like, you know, we're not gonna,
00:20:40
sell Coco to this country anymore. We don't need Europe
00:20:43
anymore. We we don't want aid. We want partnerships. All those kinds of things I
00:20:47
would share with my friends. And I realized that can also be interesting on the
00:20:50
to African page. And I and then I thought to myself, it shouldn't only be
00:20:53
about the e commerce store. It should be about educating, the diaspora and
00:20:57
Africans about what's happening on either side. And so from there, I
00:21:01
started building that, and I still kept the e commerce store, but I really
00:21:04
started focusing more on providing value through authentic
00:21:08
African because I just felt like I was more passionate
00:21:12
about providing that value. And so I did that for 2
00:21:15
years, and then when I plan to move to Ghana, a friend of mine already
00:21:18
had a YouTube channel, and he was the one who really pushed me to start
00:21:22
the YouTube channel. He was like, you talk a lot already. You don't hit you.
00:21:25
Somebody asking me one question. You can talk unprompted for, like, 2 hour So
00:21:29
I was like, okay. That's fair. He was like, just watch me edit, you know,
00:21:33
and so I could see how he edited and also saw how he filmed. Okay.
00:21:36
So those 2 things are, like, critical. Right? And then everything else you can learn
00:21:39
from watching YouTube videos, people can show you how to do thumbnails
00:21:43
and title videos and, you know, all those kinds of
00:21:46
things. So, so I was convinced. You know, we shot 13 pieces of
00:21:50
content together. Before I launched my channel, and then I launched my
00:21:54
channel, the authentic af authentic African YouTube channel
00:21:57
in February, of course, Black History Month. Of 2021.
00:22:01
So 2 years after the Instagram page was up had already had 29
00:22:05
followers on Instagram or something like that at the time. I then started the YouTube
00:22:09
channel. And that is really more focused around me and my story in
00:22:13
particular to begin with. And then branching out to
00:22:16
other people's stories. You know, I wanted to interview you about what you're doing talking
00:22:20
to people. Yeah. And then I've also interviewed, yeah, which is how we got in
00:22:23
contact with each other because she people travel to the continent and she does tours
00:22:27
and things like that with them. And so I I like telling those people stories
00:22:30
because then you're getting another perspective beyond just my own. You know, when
00:22:34
people see me out there, they call me authentic african. I'm like, no, I'm Joe.
00:22:37
My channel's authentic african. Right? It's really not my story. The idea is to tell
00:22:41
other people's story And eventually, it really is to focus mostly on startups
00:22:45
and CEOs and founders of those startups because I really wanna tell those stories. That's
00:22:48
really the goal of mine. But I started with myself, to build up a following.
00:22:52
And then now we're moving towards telling the stories of these these entrepreneurs.
00:22:56
Okay. So so it it seems like
00:23:01
Like, you know, it's not necessarily like you had this master plan. It's like,
00:23:04
saying something falling in place. Right. Knowing what you know
00:23:08
now, right, when 2023 now, Yeah. Because this is
00:23:12
something that comes up quite quite frequently. So some people tend to say that
00:23:16
they wish they start channel before the Instagram. Yep. Because some
00:23:19
people are not able to convert Instagram over
00:23:23
to YouTube or whatever is that they're looking to to get out
00:23:27
of that. Sure. Would you would you have done things maybe the other way
00:23:30
around in knowing what you know now today? Honestly, I witnessed
00:23:34
because of how much work goes into a YouTube channel. Right? I mean,
00:23:38
with Instagram, you can repost other people's content. No issue. Right? As long
00:23:42
as you give them credit, then you'll be fine. With YouTube, there's there's
00:23:45
a craft that you have to learn. And so I don't think I had the
00:23:49
bandwidth at the time to do that. You know, it was I was I wasn't
00:23:52
in a position to really focus my energy and attention to it.
00:23:56
And the reason why I even started the YouTube channel is because I watched someone
00:23:59
else do it, and it showed me that I could do it. So, and I've
00:24:03
had a YouTube channel previously, and and that was the reason why I stayed away
00:24:06
and I had I had about 300 subscribers on my other YouTube channel.
00:24:10
And, this was, like, back in 2010. And it just the the
00:24:14
amount of work that it took, I was just like, you know what? I this
00:24:16
is not a platform that I'm really willing to focus on right now. So
00:24:20
I the one thing I would have done, though, maybe I wouldn't have started YouTube
00:24:23
before Instagram, but I would have,
00:24:27
maybe learn more about YouTube prior to when I did because when I
00:24:31
started, it was learning on the fly. Had no information beforehand. I mean,
00:24:34
I had a little bit of marketing knowledge. I had had a YouTube channel prior
00:24:38
to that, but that was 2010 versus 2021. It's a whole different
00:24:41
world. 9 years later, Yeah. And so, you know, I just look
00:24:45
maybe at least doing some research and learning more about how the
00:24:49
platform works. I think that would be the only thing that I would have changed
00:24:52
in terms of, the information I would have gotten earlier, but I don't think I
00:24:56
would have swapped them, though, just because the bandwidth wasn't That makes sense.
00:25:00
Yeah. I guess that makes sense. So at at the time, if you have more
00:25:03
bandwidth, you probably would have done YouTube first, especially if you have
00:25:06
opportunity to learn more about it first. Because this is why I hear a lot
00:25:09
of people say that's my option. That's not quite right. Very interesting also. Yeah. I
00:25:13
mean, you know, and and my other friend, what he noticed is like, what my
00:25:16
I if you stitch together all of my stories every trip I used to make
00:25:19
this year early on. It could have been one long YouTube log because I would
00:25:22
do, like, here's day 1. Today, I'm going to take my passport picture for my
00:25:26
passport, you know, because I was getting my dual citizenship or today, I'm going to
00:25:29
the bank to, to register to open a bank account, or I'm going to
00:25:32
CID to do, what they call your police clearance. And so all
00:25:36
these things I was doing daily as, like, an Instagram story.
00:25:40
And that was where, like, the the light bulb
00:25:44
clicked for my friend who already had a YouTube channel. Kells, by the way. His
00:25:46
name is Kells. Kowsacosta is his channel. So he was the one who was like
00:25:50
-- It's not a kennies. You know, not that kennels. Not that
00:25:53
kennels. And so, he was like, you know, if you
00:25:57
stitch all these together, this could be a YouTube blog. Like, you're doing YouTube. You're
00:26:01
just not doing It makes sense. And he was like, you have you have almost
00:26:04
30 followers on Instagram. Imagine if that was 30 subscribers
00:26:07
on YouTube. You know, you could share in the advertising revenue that YouTube
00:26:11
is generating. Gotcha. And so that was the that's what convinced me there. I was
00:26:14
like, you know what? And I can probably reach more people by
00:26:18
telling my personal story than just reposting other things.
00:26:22
And maybe not reach them in terms of the the scope of the number
00:26:26
of people right away, but really, have a stronger impact on their
00:26:30
personal lives by being myself and telling my story instead of
00:26:33
just reposting other things. And every once in a while, telling something about
00:26:37
myself. Yeah. And I I have noticed that people are way more engaged even on
00:26:41
a a smaller percentage of subscribers on YouTube versus my Instagram,
00:26:44
the way more engaged on YouTube because they relate to my story.
00:26:48
And and it's targeted at people who are thinking about moving to the continent,
00:26:52
who have visited, and and they find my videos through searches, which is on
00:26:56
where on Instagram, It's a little bit different. Right? They they
00:27:00
they're they're actively pursuing information and find my
00:27:03
content on in on YouTube Whereas on Instagram, sometimes it's on the
00:27:07
Discover page. Sometimes somebody shares it. So, it's just a different
00:27:11
experience and engagement with me on YouTube. So, So,
00:27:15
yeah, I'm I'm actually really happy that I started it. If I if I hadn't
00:27:17
started it, I don't know if I'll be as fulfilled as I am,
00:27:21
being here on the continent because it it's it required me to go different
00:27:25
places I wouldn't normally go. So I've gone on all kinds of excursions.
00:27:29
I've I've if I don't feel like waking up and going on a house
00:27:33
tour or something. I remind myself that there is somebody out there that needs to
00:27:37
see this because they're trying to make a decision about whether or not they wanna
00:27:39
move to Ghana or Sierra Leone. And so it gets me out of bed and
00:27:43
gets me excited. And I love going live. Yeah. Very very
00:27:47
engaged with the live audience and gives me a lot of energy back.
00:27:50
So, you know, I I would I would definitely say the YouTube channel has really,
00:27:55
it's it's had a strong impact on other people's lives, but then it's also had
00:27:58
a really big in my life. That's right. That's really amazing to you, man. The
00:28:02
hustle is not easy at all. Not easy. No
00:28:05
easy. Oh, no easy. Not easy to okay. Let's let's quickly talk about
00:28:09
you, I'm quitting your job to move into Africa. So
00:28:13
what was that like for you? Like, you know, leaving the comp of your well
00:28:16
paying job to go up to West Africa. What was that like? Real quick. What
00:28:20
was that like? Yeah. So, I mean, to be honest with you, it it wasn't
00:28:24
a a a decision that was made quickly or easily.
00:28:27
You know, it was something that took about 6 months. Right around my
00:28:31
35th birthday, I was in Sierra Leone. I was meeting with and they were all
00:28:34
talking about what they were doing at work. And, you know, one person was working
00:28:38
on an emergency response system, like 911 in the United States,
00:28:43
and for out of provinces this year, Leon, another person was working with,
00:28:47
doctors, and the local people around Ebola response. And
00:28:50
just ensuring people were okay with the doctors that were there and and really
00:28:54
trying to help them. And it and then when I, like, we were all talking
00:28:57
about what we're doing for work, and I was like, you know, putting ads on
00:29:00
who. You know? And although that
00:29:03
was really cool to have my mom now understand what I
00:29:07
do for a living and, you know, when she talks about it. And when I
00:29:10
would talk to people, they'd be like, oh, yeah. Who do I know who do?
00:29:12
So that was great for my ego, but anytime I did anything on the continent
00:29:15
was better for my soul. Right? I actually really felt what I was doing. I
00:29:18
felt like I was impacting something. So, you know, I I I came to West
00:29:22
Africa in May of 2020 20 2018,
00:29:26
2019, 2019. By December of 2019, I knew that I was
00:29:30
leaving my job when I came back again, and then I came to Ghana So
00:29:32
I I quit my job in January of that year. And so the plan was
00:29:36
just figuring out how it was gonna get to the continent and how it was
00:29:38
gonna generate income. But it took about 6
00:29:42
months. And, you know, I think every time I came to the car so
00:29:45
really for me, it was it was me
00:29:49
seeing that there was also waste too. Like, in in my last job, I saw
00:29:53
that there were, like, a bunch of tele a bunch of prompters and screens
00:29:57
for desk that hadn't been filled and weren't going to be filled. And I was
00:30:00
like, how many people could use these screens in Sierra Leone right
00:30:05
now? And so for me, I just saw, like, the the waist,
00:30:08
and I just felt like I wasn't doing anything to better my people, which
00:30:12
is really the end goal of mine. And so I had a lot of
00:30:16
conversations, a lot of deep thought about it, and I said to myself, if I
00:30:20
keep pushing it off for later, it will never happen. Right? If I keep saying
00:30:23
one day, I'll move to Sierra Leone. One day, I'll move to Ghana. One day,
00:30:26
I'll start investing or advising startups. It'll never happen. And so at that point, I
00:30:29
just decided to do it. So I started advising companies in at the end of
00:30:33
2019 to kinda start that process. And then I started applying
00:30:37
for jobs in July of 2020. And and that
00:30:40
to me was kind of the first step. But I I knew that I was
00:30:44
gonna make it. I knew I was gonna make the mood. It was just a
00:30:46
matter of when. And so, had a few conversations
00:30:49
specifically with a peer mentor of mine who was in South Africa starting his
00:30:53
startup. And, you know, he and I had a discussion. He was like,
00:30:56
listen. At the end of the day, you have to be there on the ground
00:31:00
to make any waves or make any headway especially when you're trying
00:31:04
to shift careers. So it's like you just need to move there. That's and then
00:31:07
figure everything else out. So as long as you're making money, just go. And so
00:31:10
I was already consulting. I had a had a way of making income for the
00:31:14
from that year of, you know, the 2020. I I was called the
00:31:17
pandemic year. So during that year, and so I could I could
00:31:21
do that from anywhere. So it's just like, why don't I just make the move
00:31:24
to make it happen? So yeah. That makes sense. So you you you realize that
00:31:27
off, you know, there's where a job, so I can work anywhere in the world.
00:31:31
Why not just why not just work from Africa -- Yeah. -- and make a
00:31:34
lot of help to make it impact like my friends are making impacts. You know,
00:31:37
one of my friends is helping to to to run emergency service,
00:31:41
emergency response, and emergency response. Sorry. Year on year, and I'm just gonna
00:31:45
do this. I wanna I wanna cut off the action. I wanna be an action
00:31:49
that's make an impact. I love it. Absolutely. Yeah, I love it. And also,
00:31:53
you know, authentic Africans also helping to do that as well. So, yes,
00:31:56
it's amazing how your your skill sets the job that you have, like, the business,
00:32:00
whatever you have. Is also without realizing it is also
00:32:04
all maybe accidentally, it's also become that thing
00:32:07
that's helped you to achieve that very purpose. Yeah. Agreed.
00:32:11
Yeah. I mean, you know, I, you know, my day job, I spent most of
00:32:15
my time and you mentioned this in the intro, working with brands, helping them
00:32:18
find their audiences online. Right? And so whether that's, you
00:32:22
know, working at a company, which is the current company I work for now, where
00:32:25
we work with companies like aljazera and websites like that, or prior to that
00:32:29
working with a large number of publishers or websites all around the
00:32:33
world, in different capacities helping them monetize their
00:32:37
digital assets in having advertisers find their audiences.
00:32:40
I am also a marketer as well, having my own e commerce
00:32:44
site. So one actually helps the other and it's it
00:32:48
was really interesting because when I first started working at at
00:32:51
Hulu, for instance, because I had already run ads on Facebook,
00:32:55
I was able to apply those same principles and
00:32:59
turn Hulu into a platform where people could do some of the same things they
00:33:02
do on Facebook. They could do on Hulu because we would talk to Peloton,
00:33:06
for instance, which is, you know, that bike company bike company. And they're used to
00:33:10
they would buy podcast ads and they buy, like, YouTube ads. And so they were
00:33:14
used to a certain way of buying advertising, and they weren't used to buying advertising
00:33:17
on TV. And so Hulu was kind of the bridge between digital and TV.
00:33:21
And so I launched partnerships that allowed Peloton to
00:33:25
be able to advertise on Hulu the way they do on YouTube and Facebook. And
00:33:28
that's only because I had worked at them as a marketer with my e commerce
00:33:32
store that I could see them as an e commerce site, how they were able
00:33:34
to do the same. Okay. So I was able to apply that to my day
00:33:37
job. And then everything I've learned with working with different brands as a
00:33:40
content person, I was able to buy that, myself
00:33:44
as a content creator now too. So, you know, thinking about,
00:33:48
you know, keywords and how I title my videos and
00:33:52
just understanding how to build content has come from the fact that I
00:33:56
was always helping advertisers find the content to advertise on
00:33:59
to find their customers. And so both have really helped. You know, it's
00:34:03
and and it's giving me some legitimacy in one area while I'm still building
00:34:07
it, you know, like, if you well, who hired you, then maybe you might know
00:34:10
what you're talking about. Right? And so that has always helped me build my social
00:34:13
media platforms, and I had a social media agency at one point in time too.
00:34:16
Wow. I left that I left that back in LA when I was in
00:34:20
LA. But, yeah, so because I was working at Hulu, it allowed people to come
00:34:23
on board as clients for me there. And so, yeah, so they they
00:34:27
they definitely work in in tandem with one another. And I've I've
00:34:31
decided since 2020 that no matter what I do, everything needs to be
00:34:34
congruent. I can't have to shut one thing off and then
00:34:38
turn something else on at, like, after 6 PM because I I
00:34:42
did that for so long, and it's just too difficult to do. Yeah. And I
00:34:45
like to use one resources for the other. Right? If I have a conversation with
00:34:48
one person about this thing, I can also have a conversation about that. So, like,
00:34:51
for instance, talking to a website about monetization with my day job. I
00:34:55
can also talk to them about maybe interviewing them from my YouTube channel. Right? I'm
00:34:58
okay. And so there's there has to be some congruency and some You
00:35:02
know, everything needs to to work together, everything that I do. So, yeah. I
00:35:06
love that. Yeah. Just being an ecosystem, I want to really shout to Emmanuel
00:35:09
Guillermo who's who's really gonna do Yeah. And, it just reminds me of the
00:35:13
conversation I just had with, Akua and Naomi Mehta, and she was saying that,
00:35:17
you know, she's talking about how what she does as a subcontractor feeds
00:35:21
into what she does as a leadership coach and as a speaker,
00:35:24
everything kind of like feeds into, you know, each other. And it's
00:35:28
always if you do have side hustles or you've got a business or another career
00:35:31
on the side, it's always I think it really helps to have something that
00:35:35
complements 1 another so it can sharpen each other skill set rather
00:35:39
than just having to switch between one thing, but you never -- Right. -- it
00:35:42
doesn't become as useful as as it should. Yep. Very, very,
00:35:46
very, very important insights for for that for the audience to know. So
00:35:49
alright. Let's let's let's keep this going. So I think you've talked spoken about
00:35:53
your authentic and so I think I'm not gonna go a bit more deep into
00:35:56
that. How would you compare working in
00:36:00
Jumia? So when you first came to the junior role. Yes. So who
00:36:04
do whatever IP is so smooth and rabies. How'd you compare it to to that?
00:36:07
It's a great question. So, yeah, so I I invested in Jimmy and
00:36:11
Twain team when they IPO. Right? And, I actually told a couple of my
00:36:15
coworkers. I was at Hulu at the time, and they're like, you're the Africa guy.
00:36:18
Right? Yeah. So let's they would say, like, you're the
00:36:22
Yeah. They're like, this is the average. This is the Amazon Africa. Right? That's the
00:36:24
color. Right? And I was like, yes. What they're calling in? I mean, I I
00:36:27
bought some shares, you know, I mean, if this is Amazon Africa, and it's a
00:36:31
a content of 54 Countries or 56. So, yeah, so I
00:36:34
invested. And so a couple of people invested with me.
00:36:38
Now that's that's a conversation for another time, but but when I moved to
00:36:42
the continent, I wanted to work to learn not to earn. So I
00:36:46
needed to understand if if I'm gonna be an adviser to start ups here on
00:36:49
the continent, I have to have local context. I can't just
00:36:53
only have my experience from the west and apply
00:36:56
it here because although I can bring some new ways of thinking about things, I
00:37:00
also need to understand culturally what's happening on the ground. And
00:37:03
so the reason why, I took the role is because they're in
00:37:07
11 markets and they're in all of the major markets across the continent of
00:37:11
Africa. So I got a chance to build a network with,
00:37:15
smart individuals around the continent. People in Tunisia,
00:37:19
Algeria, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya,
00:37:23
Uganda, Nigeria, Senegal. So and I'm missing some
00:37:27
countries, but all around the continent. Right? And so, all of that
00:37:30
went into consideration. But when I took the
00:37:34
role, what I learned very quickly was
00:37:39
a lot of companies here on the continent have remote leadership. So
00:37:43
although we had local leadership, they are reported to
00:37:46
remote leadership in Dubai or
00:37:50
in Europe somewhere. And so that pose a big challenge
00:37:54
because they're not feet on the ground, so they don't know exactly what's happening
00:37:58
in market. And so they were giving goals and making
00:38:01
decisions from their perch on high, as I used to say, in
00:38:05
Dubai, but not having any real knowledge of
00:38:09
what's happening on the ground in every major market. In the in the bigger
00:38:12
markets that they had, yes, but, like, somewhere like Ghana that was still an emerging
00:38:16
market for them, they hadn't visited in a few years. And so they get it
00:38:19
took a while for them to understand the challenges, the unique challenges that were happening
00:38:23
on the ground. And so, that was that was frustrating from time
00:38:27
to time trying to trying to express those challenges. And then
00:38:30
just just being honest, I think
00:38:34
sometimes there's a level of complacency when you feel like you're not getting paid enough.
00:38:38
And so many of the folks here, were in that
00:38:42
role because the company is a good brand name.
00:38:46
But when they got there and they weren't generating as much money as they'd
00:38:49
like, you know, that it led to some complacency some
00:38:53
So I had to learn how to inspire folks. Right? And
00:38:57
what I had to learn differently than I had in any other role was to
00:39:00
be able to explain to somebody how doing this thing over here,
00:39:04
although it maybe isn't listed in the job description, is going to benefit their
00:39:08
bottom line. So for example, I dealt with,
00:39:11
commercial folks who who work with the vendors who are selling products on the
00:39:15
site. And I tried to explain to them that there's a there's
00:39:19
a whole cycle here that you're missing. So if they're
00:39:22
happy with their products, always shipping out to customers,
00:39:26
no returns, no issues getting it to the warehouse
00:39:29
and all those kinds of things, those people decide they wanna spend money
00:39:33
on advertising because they believe in the platform. They spend money on advertising, yes, that
00:39:37
benefits me as the head of advertising, but it also benefits you because
00:39:41
you get a commission when they have when they spend money on advertising.
00:39:45
But it took a while for people to understand how that white glove service going
00:39:49
above and beyond will translate to dollars. And so I
00:39:52
had to learn how to help them understand that and then show examples
00:39:56
of. Right? So in a way that I never really had to do in previous
00:39:59
roles. And so That was something that I would there was a major difference. And
00:40:03
it was a little bit more micromanaging that I had to do for certain people,
00:40:06
than I've ever had to do in previous Wow. Well, I think that's one of
00:40:09
the challenges in in terms of, like, living in Africa or having
00:40:13
a business or approach in businesses in Africa is now. You try and
00:40:17
introduce, like, a new concept to them, and sometimes you
00:40:21
can struggle together around their head. Right. But then you have to look
00:40:24
at creating ways and make understand. And once they get it, it's like, you know,
00:40:28
there's just everything just clicks. Yeah. And then the ball starts running again.
00:40:32
Yeah. I can definitely relate, and I've got friends actually as well. We've got ages
00:40:35
who got multinational agencies as well. They've been this they've been to the same place
00:40:39
as well, obviously. Yeah. Obviously, they've been in the same place.
00:40:44
That's a handful, right? But then, of course, from there, you've been able to kind
00:40:47
of, like, take that experience and log on techs, being able to apply
00:40:51
into other things, maybe feedback into authentic and all to other
00:40:54
endeavors or maybe your maybe your current role where you're kind of now more
00:40:58
focused on advertising for Africa. So -- Yes.
00:41:02
Absolutely. Yeah. So, yeah, so the the company I I work for, basically, it's a
00:41:06
multinational firm based in the and they focus on basically
00:41:09
allowing a website to do what they do and outsource all their
00:41:13
advertising to them. Which is something I think Jumia should have done when I was
00:41:16
at Jumia was challenging to to do all of I I was I wore
00:41:21
4 different roles, like full time jobs. I did those daily.
00:41:24
That's right. So, like, I I did strategy with an agency
00:41:28
or a brand, then I had to get the creative assets
00:41:32
then I had to traffic them in the website, then I had to
00:41:36
follow the campaign all the way through. And then after it, do the
00:41:39
reporting, right, which generally is, like, 4 different roles. Right? And
00:41:42
so, I'm grateful for that experience because I learned a lot.
00:41:46
But that was a very difficult experience and usually companies like
00:41:50
that in the states outsource it. They wouldn't put one person through all of that.
00:41:54
And so, the company that I work for, they work with companies
00:41:58
like Al Jazeera, essence magazine websites like that where
00:42:01
they focus on what they do creating content and then they outsource
00:42:05
significant amount of the advertising sales and putting
00:42:09
ads on their site to the company I work for. And so,
00:42:13
I I saw, obviously, there's a market for that here on the continent, and it's
00:42:17
there's not a lot of advertising technology companies here. And so
00:42:20
that is what I do now is, you know, part of my role is Africa
00:42:23
expansion, right, on VP of business development, and Africa
00:42:27
expansion. And so that piece, the Africa expansion is what I'm focusing more on in
00:42:30
2023. Now that we built a a substantial business in 2022,
00:42:35
in, in the states. That's fantastic. I think I think your story is
00:42:38
amazing because it's quite full circle on how you've come from LA
00:42:42
to 0 and and then now Ghana. You know, you
00:42:46
start something, you know, to kind of represent Africa, authentic African. And
00:42:50
then, of course, you've even, you know, left a role and don't take on roles
00:42:53
in Africa. Get a better perspective to learn, rather than learn, like you
00:42:57
said, get a bin once in a local time context, and then you're gonna need
00:43:01
to feed that back into what you do of authentic Africa and also back into
00:43:04
what you do in terms of consulting startups and businesses. And that was like everything
00:43:08
that you've done in the past. I think you told me this out for like
00:43:11
your current job is a bit of combination of things you've done in the past.
00:43:14
Exactly. Yes. -- happen to 1. Yes. And I just find it's so remarkable how
00:43:17
the, like you said, the universe is science's way of putting all the pieces together
00:43:20
for you. Right. I'm just really, really excited on the journey of taking on the
00:43:24
future that you're gonna have as well. And, I find it
00:43:27
interesting because you talk about outsourcing. Right? Yes. And I know authentic
00:43:31
African, I mean, with your media platform or your e commerce
00:43:34
platform, you outsource some stuff as well. Right? I do. Absolutely. Yeah. So I
00:43:38
am not the best editor for you too. I'm not I'm not a great editor.
00:43:42
So you -- I think it's okay to say that. Right? Sometimes. Yeah. I know
00:43:45
your strengths. Right? You have to know your strengths. And so and if you watch
00:43:48
my videos, you'll know which ones I edit and which ones I outsource. So I
00:43:51
outsource videos to an editor, professional editor, I also have a social media
00:43:55
manager, 2 social media managers. I have one in Nigeria and I have one in
00:43:58
Sierra Leone. Oh, yeah. So so it means
00:44:01
it's a lot of auto out of pocket expenses, but it ensures consistency
00:44:05
and it ensures that I maintain that level of quality that I've always wanted
00:44:09
to because I would not have the bandwidth to do it. So, and then from
00:44:12
my e commerce side, I outsourced this e commerce site. I outsourced that to the
00:44:16
Philippines as well. So I haven't an e commerce person that's been working on my
00:44:19
e commerce sites for me for a while. And so that allows me to be
00:44:23
more strategic, and they can just kinda handle the day to day,
00:44:26
and we can experiment and see what works and what doesn't work, and we can
00:44:30
tie something for a week. If it doesn't work, try something else. And I'm not
00:44:32
exhausted by the process. I can still just sit back and think about it and
00:44:36
allow them to do what they do best. And so, yeah, I mean, I I'm
00:44:39
very big on on delegating to people who are
00:44:43
competent, you know, and good at what they do. And then, of course, I, you
00:44:46
know, when I'm in Sierra Leone, I have someone filming all of my content. So
00:44:50
she fills the behind the scenes. She also makes sure that the camera's good and
00:44:53
everything so that I don't to think about all of that. I can just sit
00:44:56
down and engage with the individual and not have to run around like crazy because
00:45:00
I know you you know what that's like. It's -- I've I've made so many
00:45:03
mistakes. Along the way when I started doing myself when I started the podcast. And
00:45:06
then from season 3, I said forget this, I'm Kenneth Dean. I told you season
00:45:10
2, there's one day I didn't press the record button. Right. And that guest was
00:45:14
not happy. Wanna have my iPad clips to use the wheels. That was it. Yeah.
00:45:18
Because they don't wanna sit down and do the interview all over again. Absolutely. Right.
00:45:21
I've had some challenges even in this season, which I know for our C again,
00:45:25
but, hey, that's it. There's a we still love it. Yeah. That's a struggle. That's
00:45:28
one of my previous guest says beautiful struggle. I like it. Beautiful struggle shots of
00:45:32
0 from surface. I mean, he said the beautiful struggle. Okay. I like that. I
00:45:35
like that. Beautiful struggle. Joanna, I've already enjoyed this conversation.
00:45:39
What would you say your 2023 plans are? Great
00:45:43
question. So, Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So this year, so,
00:45:46
I'm relaunching the authentic African, e commerce site. What's different
00:45:50
about it now is instead of just selling products made in Africa to Americans, which
00:45:54
continue to do. I'm also now working to import items from the
00:45:58
US to West Africa. So starting with Sierra Leone eventually hopefully got it as
00:46:01
well. And then also working on marketplaces. So I've
00:46:05
met quite a few people here who sell like wigs, perfumes,
00:46:09
from China, from Turkey, from England, the US,
00:46:13
and they only post on their WhatsApp status or maybe on
00:46:16
Instagram, and so I wanna give them one place that they
00:46:20
can put all of their products so that anybody who wants to search for it
00:46:23
can find it in one place. And so, I'm opening up marketplaces for
00:46:27
authentic african. So anybody who's a market person who wants to sell their products,
00:46:31
whether Whether you're selling close made in the US and Sierra Leone or you're
00:46:34
selling close made in Turkey in Nigeria, you can have authenticafrican.com/
00:46:39
the name of your business, and you have your own marketplace store where you
00:46:43
can house all of your products. And so you handle the logistics and all
00:46:47
of that, you just the person can just, purchase the product from
00:46:51
my site. And, of course, I just take a small fee for each
00:46:54
transaction. Like, the Amazon model, basically. Middle man.
00:46:58
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And really just and and it's giving them an opportunity to
00:47:02
display their products on a broader platform too. You know, because I I
00:47:06
noticed that with every single one of them that I talked to, it's exhausting
00:47:09
to post over and over again on a WhatsApp status. It's not a good use
00:47:13
of energy. Yeah. So if you could put it all in one place, and it's
00:47:16
easier to find too. Instead of searching through all their albums when somebody says,
00:47:19
where's that outfit that I looked at the other day? You could just go, okay,
00:47:23
just search for it on authenticafrican.com slash your company name. So that's
00:47:26
that's one thing that I'm doing. The imports is the other. And then beyond
00:47:30
that, really just moving to doing more content about the
00:47:34
continent overall instead of just my personal experiences here.
00:47:39
Content. Right? So yeah. Exactly. So that's the idea is is
00:47:42
expanding, into other businesses, but but
00:47:46
keeping it a part of the authentic African business, not getting outside of what
00:47:50
I know or what I can do. I don't wanna get too far ahead of
00:47:52
my skis. I just wanna expand what I'm currently doing. I like that. You just
00:47:55
stick into these drums. Again, what we said before, Absolutely. Joanna's been a
00:47:59
fantastic conversation. Where can people find you? Alright. So you could
00:48:03
find me on Instagram. It's at uh@authentic_african.
00:48:07
And on YouTube, it's just authentic african. You'll see
00:48:11
the pan African flag looks like a stamp of approval with the fist in the
00:48:15
middle. You'll know it when you see it. Fantastic. Okay. And then you have it,
00:48:19
guys. Joanna, how do I pronounce your surname? Hatago. Yes.
00:48:22
Yes. Got the right. Johannes Latwager is, of course, the founder of
00:48:26
offensive African and he's also a digital advertising digital
00:48:29
expert. Let's just say that. So I would need all of the links
00:48:33
references now get to our conversation below in the podcast
00:48:36
description or the YouTube description. Just head over to the sound dotcomforward/johannes.that's
00:48:41
sanamakwad.comforward/johannes. That's j o a
00:48:45
n n e s. You for watching guys. I'll catch you the
00:48:49
next one.