I Interviewed Myself on My 40th Birthday: The Richie Mensah Story || Masterminds Podcast EP65

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Most people spend their 40th birthday celebrating. Richie Mensah spent his telling the truth.

In this special episode of the Masterminds Podcast, Richie does something he has never done before — he interviews himself. Using the clone effect, he sits across from his own reflection and answers the questions he has never been asked, the ones only he could ask. From growing up in Burma Camp to building Lynx Entertainment into one of Africa's most iconic record labels, from sleeping on a studio couch during the darkest period of his career to throwing what many called the biggest birthday party in African history — this is the most honest, most personal, and most complete telling of the Richie Mensah story ever captured on camera. This episode is his 40th birthday gift to everyone who has been watching, listening, and growing with Masterminds.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How growing up in Burma Camp gave Richie the discipline that built everything else
• Why he turned down the chance to move to the UK at 17 — and why that decision changed his life
• The humbling moment a music expert publicly rejected every song he had ever made
• Why he slept on a studio couch for a year to protect his team during Lynx's darkest period
• What wealth actually means — and why having a salary will never make you wealthy
• Why he is officially retiring from music and what Lynx is becoming next
• The spiritual calling that started Masterminds — and the legacy he believes it will build
• Why Africa is not the future — Africa is remembering

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I promised myself that when I turned 40, I was going to retire from music. So my whole life, I have had only one employer. Everybody knows him by the name Cheda. Wait, Cheda? The biggest switch in my life was when I left Bama Camp. What was it like growing up then? How did it affect the person that you were to be? I went to Christ the King. So you said in other interviews that you were in Achimoto school studying science because you wanted to become a doctor. So how did you transition from wanting to be a doctor to a path in music? So, how would you define wealth? Wealth is how long you can continue to live at your current standard if you never work the day at night. Links is officially out of the RT's management business. Before we jump into the conversation, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting and deciding to watch this episode. But now I have a favor subscribe to the channel. Subscribing to the channel helps me and the entire mastermind team to continue bringing you wonderful conversations and episodes that bring you closer to being the mastermind you deserve to be. So join the community. Welcome back to the Masterminds Podcast. As usual, I am your awesome tour guide. My name is Richie Menta. Over here, our mission is simple to sharpen your most powerful tool, your mind. Now, this episode is just me trying to fulfill a philosophy of mine which says the only way to make change is to talk to the man in the mirror. So let me introduce my guest for today. My guest for today started work at the age of 17. He built his own company at the age of 17. He's been able to open a media empire, a record label, a school. He opened a restaurant that didn't work, but he kept going. He's built so many stars in this country, countless of his songs. I even heard that the music produced by his label has over 3 billion streams. This man has gone from being an artist, music producer, and he's now running the fastest rising African podcast on mindset and wealth. And the best part is I get to interview him on his birthday. So let me introduce my guest. Let me say your full government name for those who don't know. Welcome, Richard Anthony. And happy birthday. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's been a long time coming. So tell me, how did you wake up? How did you feel when you woke up this morning? Um, you know, my whole life I kept hearing life begins at 40, life begins at 40. And as an arrogant child, I always thought that's not true because my life has begun a long time ago. But I think I'm finally at an age, 40, where I understand what they mean by that. Because I now understand that when I say life begins at 40, they don't mean the number, they mean the clarity. So is there like a game plan or a route? Is there something you're planning for the rest of your life? Yes. There's always a game plan. I am I'm a game planner, you know. I I made my plan when I was 17, lived it up until a point, changed the plan, changed the plan. So I have a plan for 40 going to. Interesting. You know, I've lived a very interesting life. I've won so many different hats, I've done so many different things. I'm the kind of person who had a lot of dreams and I went for all of them. And I'm at a place where I feel fulfilled, but at the same time, I'm looking for that inner fulfillment. So I want to do good work, but live a good, fully fulfilled life and just enjoy the goodness of life. Okay, let's take you back to the beginning, right? So I heard you grew up in Burma Camp. What was that like? You know, um, most people wouldn't imagine that a music mogul who grew up in a place like Burma Camp, which is full of discipline. What was it like growing up then? How did it affect the person that you are today? Honestly speaking, it's the best place I've ever lived. You know, Burma Camp is the type of place where everything is all in there. I had no reason to leave. My school was in the barracks, you know, there was a library there, my friends were there, everything I wanted to do was there. So the biggest switch in my life was when I left Burma Camp. It's like everything just went upside down. I was used to the discipline of being in the same area, surrounded by my people, then everything just went upside down. Plus, also when I left Burma Camp, we went through hardships for a bit, so it opened my eyes to the world. Okay, maybe that's where I get my discipline from. You know, a lot of people don't fully understand me. Let me say it that way. Most people see me as Mr. Entertainment, which is true because I love entertainment. But the reason for my success is that I've approached entertainment from a different angle. Whereas a lot of people see entertainment as fun, let's just go along with it. I've always approached it from a disciplined angle because right from childhood I understood that wherever my energy went, whatever I paid attention to, put the right strategies in were the things that succeeded. So when I decided to go into music, I went in that way. I strategized, I made plans, I kept my disciplines, you know. So I think starting my life on the barracks like that probably, you know, set me up for the right discipline to succeed. Okay, so from Burma Camp, now let's continue with school. Um, you went to Achimoto school, right? Wait, which school did you go to before Achimota school? Before Achimoto, I went to Christ the King. So you've said in other interviews that you were in Achimoto school studying science because you wanted to become a doctor. So how did you transition from wanting to be a doctor to the path in music? So I was going to be a surgeon. That was my plan. Oh, I was Mr. I want to be a doctor. My dad was a doctor. So growing up was like, I'm going to be a doctor too. And then I also looked at surgery and I found it fascinating, you know, to be able to fix people from the inside. I was, you know, excited about it. But I had always loved music. And I wasn't being able to marry the two. It was like there were two versions of me. There was Richie who loved music and the arts, you know, because when I'm at home, I'll be singing with the family, I'll be doing the blues brothers and everything. Nice. And there was also Richie who just had a scientific approach to everything in life. I love doing research, love doing experiments. I'll open up my deck just to see how it works, you know. So marrying the two was very difficult for me. So I always give credits to um Mr. Ken Kafui. Um, God bless and rest his soul. He's the one who asked me, Have I heard of sound engineering? And I'd never heard of it before. Okay. And he explained to me that that's the science of music. It just hit me out of nowhere that, oh, okay, so this is a way I can combine the two things that I love. So I started finding out about sound engineering. I was heartbroken when I found out that they didn't do sound engineering in uni in Ghana. So I couldn't continue my education to do sound engineering. I think that was one of the reasons it was easy for me to decide not to go to university. Because the course that I had now decided, the path that I was now going to take, wasn't available in Ghana. And I couldn't afford the prices in the UK and the US. So I said, I'll go day here. Okay, so tell me about your group in Motown. I heard you had a singing group in Motown, and that's how your whole journey started. Tell me about it. So I was in two groups. The first one, both were a cappella groups, you know. Okay. The first one, I was the I was in um SS1. Now they call it SH1, right? I was in SH1 and everybody else was in SH3. So I was a junior and they were all seniors. You know, so for a long time, people even thought I was a senior because when we're performing, I would wear the senior outfit. And then when they left in SS2, I created my own group. So my group was called S-Touch. Nice. So that group was actually myself, Irene Logan. You all know Irene Logan. There's Salimi. Salimi is the voice behind some of the biggest commercials I've done, like Gino Truly Cares, RLG, Vodafone, lots of the big commercials I did. Salimi was the voice. There was Edwin Ferguson, he's a pianist right now. He plays with the National Symphony Orchestra and he's also a teacher at Winnebag. I hope he's worse than Salassie and Francis. Both Selassie and Francis went off to become doctors. We're all in science together. So they continued. That was the rebel. You know. So the the funny thing is, when we left school, the four boys decided to open a group and we're going to release as a group. And the group was called Lynx. Nice. So I came up with the name Lynx for the group. Then unfortunately, Francis left first. He went to do medicine in the States. So now we became three. Then Salassie also said he was going to go and do medicine at tech. So we started seeing that it wasn't going to, you know, work the way we thought. I was the only one who was a rebel enough to say I wasn't going to continue school. So I was actually quite sad about it, kept trying to call them for them to come through. And I remember my mom sitting me down one day and said, But Richie, if this is your dream, why are you waiting for other people? Nice. Push, go. So I decided, okay, if I really say I want to do this, let me go for it. And that's what gave me the vim. And I kept the name links for the record label and it grew. I've seen you mention that your mom took a loan to support the career. So is that the point that she decided to come on board and help? So you see, when I began, it was like an experiment, right? Okay. My mom gave me one year to show, you know, during my time, there was a one-year gap between senior high and university. So it hadn't been accepted yet that I won't go to uni. Because I was supposed to be a boy genius. So throwing away my education was a very big deal for my mom. So within that one year, I had to prove myself. Within like two months or three months of me working and producing, people started coming to the studio to record. And this was with very basic, useless equipment. Like a computer mic, which was meant for doing Skype those days, was the mic we're recording on. A computer that when you turn it on, it takes like eight minutes to come on. Interesting. Yeah, people were still trooping there to come and record. I had people like Amanziba come to the studio. Someone like Tiny came to the studio. So when my mom saw all this, she realized that I was on the right path. So she used her salary to take a loan to help me buy more equipment. So that's when I built my first booth, you know, my first um recording booth. I bought a computer that this time it opened in two minutes. And then I bought a better mic and a mic stand and everything. So people started to take me more seriously. So if not for her believing in me enough to risk like to risk it on me and take that loan, I wouldn't have become who I became. Interesting. Okay, so what's your relationship like with your mom right now? My mom is always going to be my biggest supporter. Oh my like she's my everything. Honestly speaking, I hear a lot of people say their mom is the best in the world. But they're wrong. I can say my mom is the best in the world. She's been there for me so much. Even times when I didn't deserve it, even times when I was losing my way. Like up till now, before I make any decision, I still run it by my mom because her wisdom, her empathy has been amazing. And my favorite thing is she's been a mom, not just to me, but to everybody. Because one thing about running a record label and management is your artists, your employees and stuff end up becoming like your children. You know, when I was a young boy running the label, other young people were like my children. So my mom has been like a mom to all of them, helping them, helping me. Honestly, she's the one person I can say without her, I would not be here. And I don't mean that from a biological point of view. I mean success. I wouldn't be here without her. But earlier you said that like there were hardships after you left Burma Camp. So how does she find a way to still support you through all that? So the beauty of being at Burma Camp, for anyone who knows what the military is like, when you're in the military, um, everything is paid for you. So you don't pay for your rent, you don't pay for electricity, you don't pay for you do get what I mean. Everything is taken care of for you. So your salary is basically just to keep you going. It's just for food and stuff. When you leave that into, sorry to say, the real world, then everything now becomes your responsibility. And I was young at that point, so I don't fully understand the dynamics. But when we moved from Burma Camp into the real world, it got it got real, you know. Like the place we moved to for the first three months, we didn't have electricity. You know, so I remember that when we were going to school, uh, clothes wouldn't be ironed. We had we had a lot of things that we had to get through. And even the schools that we went to, when I left, I was in um class one. The schools that I went to after that was a very big dip from what we were used to. You know, so it's my mom who had to fight and she went to get a job teaching at Christ the King. And you know, once you are a teacher there, they give you a discount for your kids. So that allowed us to be able to afford to go to Christ the King. Even that once it was rough for a while because you know, now I was coming into a rich school as the poor kid. You know, no be small bullying or collect for there. So, how about the rest of your family? Were your siblings also into music? Did they join you along the path? The truth of the matter is we were a group. Before starting a group in senior high, I and my siblings were a group. We're called Ann Al Rich. Interesting. That's Angela Albert Richie, Anna Al Rich. We used to perform together. It started with just my brother and I. We watched this movie, Blues Brothers, and we started to sing every song in it together. And then my sister joined. So I always say this that most people don't know. My brother and my sister are actually more talented than me when it comes to music. Oh, okay. When I was younger, I was waiting for them to be the musician, you know. Then my sister did science, went to UK to do biochemistry, you know. Then my brother did science, then he continued to do agric engineering. So I think that's also part of why when um Ken Kafui suggested sound engineering to me, I took it serious. Because I was the last hope for the family. It's like this is a musical family, family von trap, and everybody gave up on the music. So we've always been connected by the music, which is why it was easier when I started the music and then I succeeded. It was easier for them to come and help me out because that connection was always there. A little bird told me that you got an opportunity to go to the UK when you were 17 to do your music there. So why did you turn that opportunity down? It wasn't even just to study. So my sister actually offered that I should relocate to the UK with her and do the music over there. Oh, okay. And I don't know where I got this feeling from. I'm someone who's really listened to my intuition a lot, but I told her something that is so ballsy for a 17-year-old. I told her that I feel if I come to UK, I will be just another musician. But if I create in my country, I'll build a legacy. So I wanted to stay. Oh, okay. I don't know where I got that from, but I felt it and thankfully I was right. Oh, this would be a very different kind of interview. She was shocked. I mean, she was shocked, but my family, we don't believe in forcing people. So if you say you'll stay and do your thing, then yeah. Okay, let's talk about the start of links. You know, most people only see the glitz and the glam and the success and everything that went well. But I know definitely there must have been some humbling and embarrassing moments while you were trying to make it. Can you give us one moment? One thing that nobody knows about. Tell us a story. Interesting. There have been a lot of humbling, like my life has been very humbling, a lot of different things. But there's one thing I would like to talk about that most people don't know. So, my whole life, I have had only one employer. So, two years after I had started Links, you know, when I was still hustling and everything, a man came to the studio, you know. Everybody knows him by the name Cheddar. Nana Kwam Bidia. Wait, Cheddar. He came to the studio, he said he had heard about me and he was starting a record label. Interesting. Wonder World. And he wanted me to come and work for him as a producer. So I told him that I had my thing, I had my links that I was doing. I'm also a record label. Look at me, you Mr. Nobody. And I was saying, I also have my own record label. I said, I don't know, I just felt he was a visionary. There was something about him that made me think this guy knows what he's about. So I said, okay, I can't abandon my label, but what can I can do is I can work for him part-time. So while I'm building my links, I'll also be working for Wonderworld. So I actually started working there for a bit. So the song that Wonderworld released, Scientific, Africa Unite, that was my production. So that was actually the first time a song I produced was played on radio, you know. So it was a very interesting experience. So I was there only, I was like halfway there. Everybody else who was at Wonderworld belonged to Wonderworld. Some embarrassing thing that happened one day. Um, they brought this music expert from a record label in the States. Oh, okay. And he came and he came to listen to so many of the songs that Wonderworld had produced, you know. So they'll play this guy's song, then he's loving it. Oh, this is great. This is blah, blah, blah, blah. Then they'll play another song, then he's loving it. The guy was just feeling the Wonder World vibe. Then now they played my song as a singer. And the guy was like, ah, who's that? That's crap. And I was like, What? But then I thought, okay, maybe he doesn't like this song. Then they'll play some other two songs from other people, then they'll come back and play another song of mine. Then the guy will completely diss the song again. They play like five songs of mine, and the guy hated all of it and basically said, Whoever this guy is, nah, drop him from the label. He's not he's not good enough. So I was just standing there quietly. Thankfully, they didn't point to me so I could hide my shame. I remember I went home and I cried like a baby. I cried like a baby. This was the first time I was being hit with harsh critiques like this, you know. So my friend Sally, Sally came to the house, you know. Sally had always been supporting me. He came to the house and he saw me sitting there crying like a baby. He asked, What's wrong with me? Then I told him what happened. Then he said, Okay, it's it's an unfortunate thing, but I have two options. I can either be down or I can fight harder. So what am I doing? And it just was like a slap in the face. And I said, Nah, I need to prove this guy wrong. So I kept going. Everyone's biggest aim is to build wealth. Now, anyone who knows what they are about will tell you the one true way to build wealth is to have a system that gains that wealth over time. Now, most people are suffering to what system or what tool can they use? How did they get to invest easily? How do they get to invest over time? Small amounts, compound interest, and build their wealth. Well, that tool is Achieve by Petra. Download Achieve by Petra now and let's build wealth together. Okay, how about after success? Is there a time that things got so bad you thought you weren't going to be able to recover? I don't think I've ever had a time where I felt it was over. You know, the reason it's tough for me to answer this question is I think I've had so many difficult times where most people would have given up, but I didn't give up. Like I remember a point in time. Okay, let me use this story to maybe even help business people out there. There was a mistake, a very big mistake I made one time where I expected money to be coming. You know, we were working on a deal that was going to bring a lot of money to Lynx, and the deal hadn't finalized, but they had verbally given us confirmation. So we started to, you know, lifestyle inflation. We started to move different. So we moved from our old place, we went to rent a new place, and we went from renting in cities to renting in dollars. So I remember, I remember exactly the amount. We were paying um 950. Cities at the old place, and we moved to a new place that was paying$1,200. Now, at the time, it didn't matter because this was when the city and the dollar were the same. So it felt like oh, it was just 300 cities more. Now we stayed at that place for three years, and within the three years, the dollar went to four cities. So by the time we were leaving, our rent had quadrupled and it was killing us. Oh, by the way, the deal I'm talking about never happened. And that was actually one of the roughest periods for Lynx because that was around the time that the RT started to leave. So Assem had left, then Easy left, then you know, things just kept getting more and more difficult. So when we were we were leaving that place, we weren't in a position to rent a good place. So we actually went to a house that was very bad, and we went to a neighborhood that got flooded all the time. You know, most people don't know this. I don't like sharing the story, but it is what it is. For the first um one year of Ms. V's career, I remember that's when I was in that place. Oh, wait. At this time we knew you. This was like when you were big. So when we were making songs like Bucka Bucker, Natural Girl, you know, all those things. I was in that place and I stayed in the studio. So previously, the place we're at was very big. So this was a time that we had had like some of the employees move into Lynx. You know, we're moving different, you know. Yeah, now if you're an employee of Lynx, we have a room for you there and everything. So when we left there, there wasn't enough money to get as big a place. So I had to sacrifice because I couldn't tell people to go back to wherever they came from. So I sacrificed and I stayed in the studio. So the studio was my bedroom. So most people didn't know this. So the couch in the studio was my bed for a year. It wasn't in a sofa bed, just normal couch. It was my bed. So I have to wake up very early, bath quickly in the bathroom, tidy up the place before people come to work. Then when they go later, and people too won't leave the studio early, so I can't sleep. 3 a.m., 4 a.m. when they go, then I sleep and tidy up the place all over again. And that house was consistently flooded. Every time it rained, the place would flood, and the neighborhood was all attache. Mud everywhere. So when it floods, it comes with the mud, and there was a rubbish, uh, there was a rub rubbish nearby. It would come with all the rubbish and everything. It was horrible. So we just kept saving, saving, saving, and then it didn't even take up to a year. After like 10 months, we said, and we moved to a new place. That time was tough, but like I was saying, through that, there was never a day that I felt like it was over. I just felt going through a rough patch, we'll get through it. Oh, that's tough. Okay, but now let's talk about your career as a musician. You know, you broke a lot of hearts. Everybody knew you as Richie, the singer, and then one day you just disappeared. No announcements, no talking to your fans, no explanation. You just disappeared and stepped back to only be the label boss. What led you to this decision? And why didn't you tell, you know, your loving fans what was going on? So here's the thing. Like I said, I always had plans for myself. You know, one thing about me is every time I have a dream, I converge that dream into a plan. When I dreamt about doing music, I didn't only dream about being an artist. I dreamt about running a label. I dreamt about one dream I had. You know, I told someone this. I'm sad because this is the one thing I didn't accomplish. One thing I had, one dream I had was to win a lifetime achievement award before turning 40. And I always knew that to do that, I needed to be a man behind the scenes, a man pulling the strings, not just the man in front of the camera. So I always had the dreams of being more than just a voice, being an actual powerhouse, which is why I started the record label in the first place. Now, along the line, just like I was saying about the side hustle, along the line, I came to realize being an artist is a full-time job. Running the company was a full-time job. There were times when I really had to choose because it was getting difficult. Let's say I've been invited to the club as an artist. I need to go for socializing reasons and everything. We're at the club till 5 a.m., 6 a.m. And then I need to also go and have a business meeting at 8 a.m. So I leave the club while everybody goes to sleep. I need to dress up and go for that meeting at 8 a.m. And I started realizing more and more that there will reach a point I will either not give enough of myself to being an artist, or I won't give enough of myself to being the label boss. So I had to choose. So when I looked at the trajectory I wanted for myself, I looked at what I had what I had achieved and what I wanted to achieve, I realized Richie the artist had had his time. The next phase of my evolution was Richie the label boss. So I decided to focus fully there. The reason I never announced it was I didn't want to break the hearts of my fans because a lot of people loved my music. Up till now, I still have people coming to me saying, Why did I stop singing? And if I had made such an announcement, it would have been quite heartbreaking. So I said, Let me just keep working and give them replacements for me so that they don't feel the emptiness. One of the biggest lessons I've learned in life and in business is that not everything deserves access to you. Your attention is valuable, your focus is valuable. And in this world full of noise and distraction, the ability to control your world is your true power. Lynx Reverb was designed for premium sound, complete silence, and amazing clarity. So head to any Compute Ghana shop or to our website, linkselectronics.com, down in the description, and grab yourself a headset now. Lynx Reverb, now that's clarity. Okay, okay. Now let's talk about links, the current state of links. You know, we've noticed, we've seen that things are different with links right now. Links isn't operating the same way that we've known it to be. So can you tell us what links currently is? Okay. So I think let me do what I didn't do in the past, where I didn't announce it. This time, maybe let me announce it so people know. So Lynx has been two different phases, we've evolved into different things. I can announce that, okay. Let me say it this way. I promised myself that when I turned 40, I was going to retire from music. And I'm honoring that promise because I value promises to myself. So what I started to do was I started to phase out the music management part of Lynx. So currently, Lynx no longer manages any RTs. Links is officially out of the RT's management business. I mean, never say never. I'm I cannot predict what the future holds, but currently, as we stand, Links does not manage RTs. What we have done is we've converted the record label into a distribution company. So the distribution company gives RTs the backbone to put their music out there to the world. Interesting. And unlike music management where you can only manage a few at a time, with distribution, you can manage hundreds. We started last year, and I believe currently we have over 200 RTs that we are distributing for. You know, so we've shifted that part to distribution. And then the next thing that I'm focusing my full energy on is Lynx Electronics. So, you know, for 20 years I've been creating sound and creating music for people to enjoy. And now I'm focusing on creating a way they can enjoy that music, a way they can listen to that music. So last year, if you remember, we came out with Lynx Reverb, that's the headphones. And very soon, right now, this is exclusive, very soon, we'll be coming out with our own speaker. It's called Lynx Octave. So very soon that will also launch as well. So we've gone from being the people who made the music to people making the way you enjoy the music. Okay, most people don't know that throughout your career you've worn so many different hats from the producer, the singer, the graphic designer, the video editor, director. So, what is your mindset when it comes to developing skills and especially using technology for the young people who are watching and want to start their journey? One of my favorite sayings is that when a bird lands on a tree, it's not trusting the branch to not break, but its wings to take off if the branch breaks. What that teaches you is that you need to trust yourself to always get things done for you. You need to develop your skills. Now, what happened to me was pure necessity is the mother of invention. Most of these things that you mentioned, you know, I learned it because I couldn't afford to pay anyone. I started learning production, even production. I taught myself how to produce, taught myself how to play the piano because I was trying to play RB beats. And every producer I went to at that time was giving me Jama. So I said, let me learn this myself. Because I couldn't afford the big boys who maybe would have been able to give me what I wanted. And then once we're getting ready to release, we needed to do artworks. I couldn't afford a graphic designer, so I learned graphic designing. We started paying for music videos, but affording music videos was expensive. So it reached a while, I'll talk to some of my friends in the industry and they'll shoot for us and then I'll edit the video so that they don't charge us as much. You know, then um I couldn't afford to pay an accountant, so I had to learn accounting. I couldn't have afforded an office manager for a long time. So I had to teach myself how to do admin work and everything. So it has always been necessity that taught me these things. But what it did was it created a hunger in me to always be learning, always be looking for that new skill to grow. I used to think at a point in time I'll reach a place where I'm stuck and I can't learn anymore because my brain is congested. But I learned along the line that no, there's always room to learn more. So what I have to say to the young people out there is don't take growing your skills as a joke. You need to always be developing your skills. And look, you are in the best era ever. Because with AI tools, you can 10x what you can do. You know, when they say things like AI is going to replace human beings, it's not true. People using AI are going to replace people who are not using AI. So don't find yourself in the second bracket. People need to learn all these tools, you know. Learn how to, like I can list the tools for you. You need to get Claude, Chajjipti, Gemini, you know, learn the LLMs, then start learning some of the image generations like nano banana. In fact, get Hicksfield. Once you get Hicksfield, you'll be able to use Nano Banana, you'll be able to use Soul 2.0, you'll be able to use, oh, what's that one that I love so much? C Dream. Yeah, C dance for video, cling, cling 3.0 for video right now is amazing. Learn some of these. Perplexity is great. You can 10x whatever you are doing right now when you start mastering some of these skills. So the young people out there, in you have the time, the energy, and the bandwidth to grow faster than some of us who are, you know, let me proudly say, in our 40s. Oh my god, that's the first time I've said that. So you have to take it personal. You need to get ahead of everybody else. You know, life is not for the don't mind what they say in the book. So life is not for the meek, life is for the people who take action, who are strong, who are decisive. So, as a young person in your 20s, that is the time to be learning every skill available. Then your 30s is the time for mastery, then your 40s is the time to enjoy. Right there. So I heard you have the mastermind behind one of the biggest birthday parties in Africa. How are you able to pull off the RNA Q40? Because everybody was amazed by the party. How were you able to put all that together? I mean, RNAQ40 was a huge challenge, but also one of the most pleasurable projects I've ever worked on. A task was given to me to throw the biggest party ever in Africa. What? And then look a location was chosen and it was Independence Square. How do you throw a party at Independence Square? So one thing about me is that I've especially come to learn along the line that a leader is not about someone who can do the most, but it's about someone who can get the right people to come together to do the most. So I knew this task was impossible. And it would be especially impossible if I tried to do it by myself. So I assembled the Avengers. You know, I brought the best event organizers in Ghana from the best decor teams to the best protocol people to the best logistics, sound, lights, you know, people with great ideas. And we started thinking. We built like a think tank and just kept brainstorming. We had to build for 18 days, which honestly wasn't long enough because for the setup that was built from ground up, we should have used like a minimum of two months to build it. But how can you rent the space for two months? So we had 18 days to build it. We we so I used all my knowledge from events I've organized in the two decades that I've been working to all the projects that I've done to build a system behind it. So we had a well-oiled machine. It was like a company that was working there. Everybody had their job, had their positions. We had the right people handling accreditation and security throughout the time. We had the right builders, color-coordinated outfits and everything for everyone. We did daily meetings to check our progress, see how things were going. We built a PR team around it, both the online PR team for social media, then the traditional media team. And everybody just worked together with a common goal. You know, I share this to say, you see, you say I was the mastermind behind it. Thank you, because the show is called masterminds, but I don't want to accept that because I was the glue. I was just the glue that brought the right people together to accomplish an impossible task. And, you know, I'd always felt like collaboration can make impossible things happen, but RNA Q40 proved it that when you have the right people working together, the impossible can happen. So anybody out there that feels like you have a task or a project that's bigger than you, that's fine. Get the right people to surround you and nothing will be too big. Let's talk about masterminds. So, Masterminds is now one of the fastest growing African podcasts. So, how did Masterminds begin for you and what do you see it becoming? So, this may sound weird, but everything else I've done in my life has been a dream that I turned into a plan and then I executed. Masterminds was a spiritual calling. A spiritual calling. So right after that, I called my forever consultant, called my mom, and I told her that I don't know why I feel I'm supposed to share my knowledge. Then she also said, if you feel like you have to do it, then you should do it. So now it's like I had spiritual blessing and I had physical blessing from the people I that mattered to me. So I started. So at first I just started by doing short social media videos, just sharing the knowledge that I have, teaching people how to plan, how to do this, how to do that. And then I started seeing how people were responding to it. So it was like the calling grew. So I said, then let me take it to the next level. So when you ask me what I want masterminds to be, I know that I've done a lot. I know I've um I've done a lot in the country, I've changed industries, I've changed people's lives. But I believe masterminds and my ability to share with other people the things that I have learned, the things that I am learning, for them to use it in their life is going to be my biggest calling and legacy. In the next 10 years, I want to be able to see testimonials from all over the world, people who are succeeding on levels that I can only dare to dream of, standing on a big podium and saying, I got here because of the advice that Richie gave me eight years ago. Richie Manson, you may not know me, but masterminds changed my life. You know, I want to see people who were going through a very difficult time in life thinking they're never going to make it, to listen to one thing I said and because of that turn their lives around. I want to help build generational wealth for Africa. I want to wake Africans up. I want Africans to remember the greatness that is in us. I feel I have been called to help people remember how great they are supposed to be and that they are thinking small and playing small, and the world doesn't want them to play small. So my dream for masterminds is that it doesn't become my dream or my journey, but it empowers generations for them to build their dreams. Okay, now we've seen an offshoot of Masterminds, Untold Africa. For those who've not seen Untold Africa before, what's that about? Untold Africa is a way of sharing the beautiful African stories that we are not told about. You know, you have to know one thing our curriculum was not built by Africans, it was not built for Africans, so it doesn't share Africa in the best light. So most people don't know how great our history is. When most people think about African history, they think from 1600s till now. They don't ask about what was happening before the white man came, they don't ask about Mansa Musa and Shakazulu, you know, the Dahomey tribe. They don't know all these great stories. We don't know the greatness that we come from. So sometimes we think small because we've been told that we are small. So one told Africa is a way of reminding Africans about our true greatness. Okay, so I've heard you say Africa is remembering, not emerging. What do you mean by that? So I hear lots of people say Africa is the future, Africa is emerging. That's a lie. To say that means we've never been there. Anyone can Google this. It is a known fact. Scientists, Western scientists, have confirmed the fact that humanity started in Africa. When we're talking about the greatest civilizations in the world, the first great civilization was Egypt. I know the Sumerian civilization was the first recorded civilization, but the first great civilization was Egypt. Like, look at the pyramids that were built in that time. We had African nations that were able to defeat Rome when Rome was known as the conquering power in the world. Africa has always been great. All the resources are here. From the natural resources, the minerals to the human resources. We have the strongest people, the fastest people. Go check sports to intelligence. African brilliance has always been there. Like we were doing complex medicine at a time when complex medicine was not known to. The West. You go to Nigeria and they had a code. You know, they they built a complex code called IFA. That's a long time ago when people did not even understand how to build a code. Right now, they study this code when they are comparing it to the binary code. So Africa has always been great. So for us to truly reach where we need to reach, we need to remember that Africa is not the future. Africa has always been great. So let's remember who we are. So do you feel the world owes Africa? The world doesn't owe us anything. Nobody owes anybody anything in this world. You take what is rightfully yours. And what is rightfully yours is what you decide is yours. If we decide that leftovers belong to us, we will only get leftovers. But the day we understand that we are a powerful um body, I almost said powerful nation. That was Kamen Krummer's dream. Then it happened. But the day we decide that we are a powerful body, what is owed to us, we will take for ourselves. US is the superpower in the world because they believe they are the superpower in the world. Now China is becoming a superpower because they believe they are. So when Africa says that we want to be a superpower, we will be. It's that simple. Let me get your take on this. How do you feel about world dominance? Because currently it feels like things are shifting, like the world powers are shifting. What's your thought on that? They say to be able to predict the future, you need to study the past. You know, everybody, when you are in your generation, you think what is happening is unique, but it's not. The world is always twisting like that. Honestly speaking, even this particular regime of world dominance or world leaders is the youngest. You know, we had Rome lead the world for about a thousand years. We had the Ottoman Empire for about 400 years being world leaders. Do you get what I mean? We've had different dynasties. Like China, for instance, is not becoming a world superpower. They were a world superpower a long time ago. So they are also just like Africa, remembering. So the truth of the matter is it's a it's a season. You know, world dominance is always seasonal. It's just the season is so long, it's usually 300, 400, 500 to 1,000 years. So everyone born in that generation is not able to imagine things shifting. The US has been the world superpower for about 70 years, 80 years, give or take. I mean, let's say from the Second World War. So the US has been a world power for about 80, heading to 90 years. Rome was a world power for about a thousand years. So it's seasons are always going to shift. The question is, where are you going to be when things are shifting? So, where does Africa want to be as it feels like global dominance is shifting a bit right now? So, do you think Africa's problem is the mindset? Everything is a mindset. You know, where you are is all based on what you believe you are. So the reason I'm trying so hard to get Africans to remember our greatness is when we see ourselves like a third world country, a third world group, we will always be like that. One thing I hate to hear, I hate it with a passion, is when anything good happens, then you hear someone say, Hey, the white man that they do well, hey Brunid Dio Adrian. You see, we talk down on ourselves, we talk down on our accomplishments, on our ability. One thing that pisses me off completely is when we hear someone in the West, like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, you know, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, we hear these people earning billions. They are filthy, rich, they are doing big things. We are like, oh yeah, that makes sense because they are from the West. When you hear an African making a lot of money and doing good, we say, oh, he's either doing fraud or is spiritual money or something. We don't even believe in ourselves enough. So once we get the mindset that we are powerful, we will actually embody it. You believe mindset is more important than motivation. For somebody who's struggling, trying hard, but they keep hitting a brick wall. How do you explain this to them that mindset is the way out? Okay. Let me explain it like this. Thoughts become words, words become actions. Actions become behavior. Behavior becomes habits, and your habits now become your personality. So everything starts in the mind. What we don't understand is when you are trying to change your habits, change your actions, change your behavior, none of those change until you change what is in your mind first. So if you are stuck, don't put the cart before the horse. If you are stuck, work on your mindset, interrogate your mind. You know, sometimes we think we are our mind. No, we are not. Your mind is a whole complete machine of its own that is formed prejudices and biases based on things that have happened to it. You know, from the traumas in your past. You held this glass for the first time one day and it broke and cut your hand. So the next time you see a glass, you don't want to touch that glass because it could cut you again. But maybe it was just a faulty glass. So interrogate your mind. What beliefs do I have that is making me stuck? I say this all the time, especially when it comes to money. Your level of financial knowledge is equivalent to your finances. So if you are poor, if you are broke, then there is something about money that you don't understand. And learn everything that you knew and relearn new things. You know, you need to edit your mind, you need to change the operating system, update it. You need a you know, update mind 2.0. When you are able to do that, your mindset will start to shift, and then your thoughts will change, your words will change, actions change, behaviors change, habits change, and your personality changes, and that will bring you the results that you need. Do you think the stigmatization of mental health and people trying to get help is part of the reason we are not getting the right mindset? Yes, I think we've made anything with the mind to be like a taboo. You know, if if you have a headache, take painkiller. If you get malaria, go to the hospital, you know. If you have an injury, go to the emergency room. There's something to do for every part of your health except the mind. Now the avenues are there, but people don't want to seek that out because you are made to feel like you should be complete. You shouldn't need any help to fix your mind. But why not? Everybody needs help all the time. If if if you are not okay to go to a therapist, or maybe if you can't afford a therapist, there are other ways of getting help. Watch videos, watch things that will help you to unlearn. You know, most of the time when you are having conflicts in the mind, it means that the current beliefs you have are contradictory to what you need to do now. So unlearn. Unlearn all the wrong things that are keeping you stuck. When you start to learn the right things, your mind will clear up and you'll be able to get more done. There is nothing wrong with asking for help. Okay, let's talk about wealth. How would you define wealth? Not the dictionary definition, how do you define what wealth means to you? So, wealth for me is time. Wealth, I'm borrowing this definition from RNAQ. He said, Wealth is how long you can continue to live at your current standard if you never work the day from today. For some people, it's two minutes. For some people, it's 20 years, for some it's last week. If they stop working today, they are dead last week. So the way to be able to actually gain wealth is what I always say that the revenue from your assets needs to surpass your monthly expenses. So bear in mind, I'm not saying your income, I'm not talking about your salary. No, the revenue from your assets, things that are passively making money for you, need to surpass how much you are spending consistently. Once you are able to do that, what that means is let's say I spend 5,000 CDs a month and I have assets that are bringing me 10,000 CDs a month without me actively working on it. That means I can continue to live because I'll keep spending 5,000 and every month I'll make 10,000. So I have a profit, I have excess of 5,000 every month to even reinvest. So the goal for wealth is always to make sure that your expenses are below your revenue from assets. But the problem is most people don't have any assets, so they are only relying on income. So the day their boss sacks them or they have an injury or something happens to them, revenue is cut, life is over. So that person isn't wealthy. So you have rich people who aren't wealthy because they are dependent on a source that depends on their energy. What's the biggest financial mistake you feel you've made? Biggest financial mistake I've made is not investing early. You know, I I I invested, well, let me not say not investing early because I've always invested everything into my business. But not diversifying my investment early. And once I started learning more about you know money and finance and everything, and I saw the power of compound interest and how money can grow, I came to realize that if I knew what I know about investment now when I was 20, maybe I'll be buying a private jet today. Okay, our goal here on Masterminds is to turn everyone watching into a true mastermind. So if you had the power to look into that camera right there, that's your camera, and drop one mindset shift into the mind of the one watching, what would that be? Okay. So the one advice I have for you, watching, is something I've written a book about. Yes, it's your fault. I really believe in self-accountability. Everything that has happened to me in my life is my fault. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Even what I didn't make happen, I chose how I reacted to it. So please keep this in mind. Your life is yours. Your superpower is the fact that you are in charge of your life. So if you are the problem, you are also the solution. So if you're watching me from today, analyze your life, every single thing in your life, and ask yourself how can you get a better result than what you have now? Then take action until you get that result. Because yes, it's your fault, and that is your superpower. Thank you so much, Richie. You know, I've always heard great minds think alike, but I think today I truly understand why. It's been amazing looking at my own reflection. Thank you so much for being here, and I hope you watching this have come five steps closer to being the mastermind I know you are destined to be. Thank you for watching this episode. Now, the mastermind's dream is about building a community of people who have the right mindset and are ready to take their success into their own hands. So do me this wonderful favor, subscribe and share with anybody out there who you believe you want to see have the right mindset to succeed so that together we can all become the masterminds we deserve to be.