DERRICK ABAITEY — Founder, Triibe.io | Building Africa’s Creative Economy

In this episode of TIMELESS with Teddy Abrokwa, entrepreneur, podcast host and founder of Konnected House and Triibe.io, Derrick Abaitey, joins us for a reflective conversation on his journey, purpose, and vision for the future.

We explore the rise of the Konnected Minds Podcast and how it became a platform for meaningful conversations, as well as Derrick’s personal come up — from early influences and family foundations to navigating entrepreneurship across different environments.

The conversation also dives into the realities of building within the creative economy, the challenges faced by African creatives, and why infrastructure is the missing piece. Through his work with Triibe.io, Derrick shares his vision for creating systems that empower creatives to thrive sustainably on a global scale.

This is a conversation about growth, intention, and building beyond yourself. 

If this conversation resonates, share it with someone building something meaningful.

TIMELESS — Stories. Legacy. Truth.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:05

I know you are somebody who is for that great so you understand. This one is the blend of bamboo each fried uh bamboo, yeah. So this is all soast package and so like three different flavors.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

I think I prefer the ginger. You prefer the ginger, you know when you're in the king's land sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

Oh sorry, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

I wanna swap this one. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

So you always have to protect your phone. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Okay, you know this and they said people have been stealing other people's phones on the streets. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

So yeah, if you're wondering what it is, it's called Yay. I think it's gun. Uh go and eat. You speak gun?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

No, no, I don't. You don't terrible.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

So you've been in Accra for how long now?

SPEAKER_01 1:07

For like six years.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Six years.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Wow, six years. Time is really flying, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

And I don't think I don't even speak one gun. I didn't go there to learn that to learn the language.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

You went there to make money. Now I think it's far beyond just making money, you know. That's one thing I've influenced. Yes, I I've realized, you know, with with you. So we're going to look at uh passion, you know, to from sustainability, from passion to sustainability. Yeah, that's that's what I want to focus on today. And uh it's it's in important that you know you are in town again. Uh you come in for like two, three days and you're off. Yeah, uh how is how is life most importantly?

SPEAKER_01 1:48

How is life?

SPEAKER_03 1:50

How is life?

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yeah, it's good, it's good. Life is is it's life thing, as they say. You know, a lot of things happen, but we always find a way to you know navigate. You know, like I think it was Bruce Lee that said it, you know, be like water, you know, finding your way around the obstacles.

SPEAKER_03 2:09

That's that's actually a serious thing to say. A very powerful line. Uh no, Bruce Lee is you know, if you like, apart from the action, he had a whole methodology of approach to life, you know. He's his sayings, discipline, his his instinct, killer instincts. You know, finding your way around water. Yeah, so the the obstacle is not the problem. It's not a problem, just find a way around it.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

You know, water will flow regardless.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

Yeah, yeah. The sun will shine regardless. Yeah, it will rain regardless.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Yeah, so life is is um it's there's a lot of things happening. Um but we are cool, you know, with the inside.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

But I've I've got to say, congratulations, you know. So you recently got an award uh podcast of the podcast of the year, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

2025, um, Spotify. Spotify, yeah, it's a top podcasting in the country. Wow, yes.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

Wow, that's that's incredible. And looking at how many years of connected minds? Two years. Two years. We are now third year now, third year, amazing. So we are here with with Derek D.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

Now you have uh an inspiring story. Anytime I speak to you, you know, I cherish those conversations that you leave with something, you know, to actually learn that until you delete everything from the recycle box, whatever you're deleting from your hard drive doesn't really create the space you need, yeah, you know, but it's it's really practical as well that we have to make sure that we delete a lot of the old stack from our our uh supposed baskets, you know. That if you you might think you've you've uh done away with the habit, if you don't get rid of it, up put it completely, yeah, it comes back.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Well, because like I always say that what left you is just at a door. If you open the door again, it's gonna come back in. So you have to really empty it and create several doors to like a form of resistance, right? So you look at this and this is you, and this is the first habit, and that just left you, right? You just left it. But if you don't create several doors as resistance, then what happens is as soon as this does open, it comes back in.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

This is timeless conversations. Uh, you're somebody who is um you have an inspiring story in terms of creativity, but your background, you're a pharmacist. Yes, you know, a pharmacist, a musician, uh, an entrepreneur, you know. Which which of them um, you know, the was it the the career as a pharmacist that drove you into the entrepreneur, or you had that before you know going into the pharmacy? Uh well, you know, which which one came first?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yeah, so great question. Um, Teddy. I truth be told, I think the only thing I've known as a path to um success has been entrepreneurship. That's the only thing I've known. And I'll give you an example. I lived with my stepdad, my grandma, you know, for a bit up and down, and my mom um spent a bit of time with my dad as well. But my early age, I did, I never saw my grandma go go and work for somebody. Never saw my stepdad do that. My mom never did that. Uh, my father, even, never did that when I knew about him in Ghana. Most of the people I knew in the village in Swabe, they they were never like that, right? Everybody had a land that they were cultivating, they were growing something. Um, stepdad had a chemical selling shop. So for me, that's what I saw as a path to success. Um, then you know, I moved from the village, I come to Odin to go to school at age eight. Age eight, you know, that that's when I saw people quote unquote, I'm going to work, I'm going to work. Because in a village, you never see that. You're going to work, where are you going to work? There's no work to start with. And by eight years, you know, psychology says at that time, you know, I'd already been um the things that I will be, the things I'll become, I've already formulated that uh as part of me. So entrepreneurship, I think it's been it's always been part of me. But then, you know, when I moved from Odin boarding school, and then I came all the way to London as well. I was looking always looking for a way. What age? So I left Ghana 14 uh 15 years. Okay. When I finished um GHS. Oh, I didn't even wait for my results to come. I mean, I didn't have to have the chance, right? And then came to Ghana, um, came to London, Forest Gates. That's where I lived. Uh, I was always looking for a way to go back and take care of my siblings because I had left them. You know, and they were not as fortunate because we don't have the same dad. So my father took me and then brought me to London. I was constantly looking for those ways. And when I had, I went to church one time, and then I met Ernest Asari, and he started teaching me very much, you know, about computer services. Those days, hardware and software, uh you know, spyware was a lot on the computers. So he taught me how to clear it. And then I created flyers and used that as a way of you know going into people's flats, you know, like these block of flats, just go in there, drop the flyers and try to get some clients. I was young, about 16 years old. Then I won the first client, and he used to pay me as in when he liked, you know, there was no formula for it. I sent that back home through Western Union. Oh, yeah, because that was the only way. Yeah, but then you know, if I I don't know whether I should fast-forward the story or I should carry on, but it just went on and on and on, and I saw the internet as a way to make money. In fact, this story. So there was a time I was on a computer. I was a computer, like I loved computer, I was a whiskey, like I love computers. I was on a computer and my dad was like, you know, it's getting late. Go, it's go and sleep constantly, right? But then I saw an ad, it says win, win, win, win, win. At the time I didn't know what an ad was. And I thought I was gonna win money. It said a 10,000 pounds discount. It was pop-ups, yeah. Good. I clicked on it, put all my details in there, and in my head, I'm gonna win money. A few days later, a letter came to the post and it was a bill, and it says that um an optical, there was an optical company that it was for cataracts or something in a um cataracts operation. And it says that this is the fee, but the discount is ten thousand. So the ten thousand I saw was actually a discount, and I guess I didn't even know what a discount meant. Wow. That was really upset.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

So what must be what must be the real cost then for 10,000 discount?

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Exactly. It was expensive. Um, so that was upset. He called him and then said no, the kid didn't know what he was doing. Two days after, I'm in my room, and then I must have heard my brother saying, Oh, I made some money, I made some money. My senior brother. And this this was because he had gone to college and he has been he had been given a grant of I think around 250 or 350 pounds, and everybody in the house was happy for him. Imagine how I felt. A few days ago I tried to make some money, it came as a bill. Yeah, and then here is my senior brother, everybody's happy for him because he won't it went in straight, and I started thinking, wait, hold on, this is how people are actually going to relate with him and me. It looks as if I'm the bad one, and I need to make money. I think that was a kicker for me. You know, it went in. And how were you going to make the money? What was the thinking? So, my thinking was to carry on with the computer services, learn more skills. So I went back, um, even though at these times they were restricting me a bit on the computer uh because of what had just happened. So NS taught me Joomla, WordPress, Drupal. These are content management systems. Oh, and I learned WordPress. Right. Uh we moved from Forest Gate, Secamore Court, and then went to uh Mano Park to stay there. That was when I started, you know, teaching people WordPress, and this is how I did it. I went on Gumtree and I created a post so that I can teach you how to use WordPress. And then a lady contacted me, Charles Delgado, I'd never forget, she still follows me on Instagram and says that she needs the services because she's doing some work with the BBC, and that's a skill she needs to have. She called me in, and I think at the time she was paying me 17 pounds an hour. On Wednesdays, I used to do two or three hours with her. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 10:46

So what what year?

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Just for context. For context, who I was about 17 years out at this time, so that's 2007.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

Okay. That's around the time I met you then.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what you would do the music about it. Around the same time, I was doing music. So the music actually started in Ghana. So I um myself and three boys, we had a group called Gangsters Paradise, you know, the Gangster Paradise. Right, cool. Yeah, yeah. Um, so it was myself, Basal and Pierrot. We did performance in Aquis. I came to Draw Markets, yeah, yeah, yeah. We did a few things. Yeah, we were young. I think at the time I was about 11 or 12, and we're doing that. So when I came to the UK, I came with the whole music vibe as well. So while I was using the computer, it was a time I used to use Audacity to do some recording.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Um, I did some demos, played it to my dad. He was excited about that one, and then you know, pushed me to Kobe, Kingsbeat Studio, and then I did a whole album, myself and Bright, my senior brother. We did a whole album in a studio.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

Big shout out to Kingsbeat, man. You know, he's been revolutionary in a lot of uh artists, particularly those who who started their careers here in the UK as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

It's been and then I went to college, right? This same time I was doing the music and then doing the computer repair services. Um, when I was in college, I saw Kelvin. You know, Kelvin used to dress like 50 Cent. Oh cool guy. So I saw him, and you know, we can our eyes kind of you know crossed, and then we started speaking to each other. Uh, he told me where he was from, he was also doing music, and I was looking for someone to join Vibe Squad.

SPEAKER_03 12:31

So just for context, this is Kelvin Amwaku. Entertainment lawyer.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Serious entertainment lawyer now. Um, so he joined Vibe Squad and he was good friends with Wheezy. So anytime we would go to Kingsby Studio, he'll bring Wheezy around, and over time, Wheezy naturally became part of Vibe Squad. Right during these times, around you know, when the music was happening, I discovered on Skype, some I was speaking to someone on Skype, and then randomly somebody added me from China and said they were selling you know clothes and shoes and crepes and things like that. And I said, Yeah, cool, send me some pictures. I added some money I had from Chance and then also my EMA money, and then I was EMA um education maintenance allowance. Okay. So those days uh they give us 30 pounds a week. I added that money to some money I had, took a big risk, and ordered some shoes from Nike, fake Nike shoes from China. When it came in, I loved it. Got more pictures, showed it to some of the friends I had, and they bought into it. Sometimes they would have to wait for 14 days for it to arrive. And I was making extra money by ordering things from China and selling it while doing music and still doing computer repair services.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

You've moved back to Ghana. You said how many six years now? Six years, yeah. Oh, interesting. So, six years, um and a lot of people know you now for for your podcast rather than what the career path was, you know. So, what really was the uh that turning point for you to get into uh podcasting to start with?

SPEAKER_01 14:11

So if I look at the story properly, right after college, then comes university and all the things in between about the success of Vibe Squad and all of that. Um university, I was beginning to drop the music slowly because at this point I had done several YouTube pages, several Ghanaian websites putting African music on there, um, African music on there and movies on there, and it's been successful. There was a point I was making about 800 pounds as a student, so I realized that no, this is paying me more than even the music, so I had to drop certain things. And then I created a business with Eddie after university, but the business was doing very well in the UK, it's an active pharmacy, by the way, doing very well in the UK. Myself and Eddie are really close, but it got to a time where we thought, like, you know what, Eddie can run everything here, and he wants to stay in the UK anyway. So I need to go to Ghana. But before I went to Ghana, the success of the business and everything I had done became a story. And I'm one person that if I learn how to make this, I want to teach it. I want other people to also have access, to also create something out of it. So I started with Anchor FM on my phone. So I'd go to work, and then you know, sometimes I take time out and I just sit in my office. Hi guys, my name is Derek, and um, this is my podcast. Um, this is 2018, by the way. And I'm talking about the my life, you know, the things I'm learning while building my business, you know, with Eddie, uh my experience and all of that. I did about three or four episodes. I got a few people that were listening to that podcast. And time came when I had to move to Ghana. Now, when I moved to Ghana, you know, Ghana, it takes you a minimum of three years to understand how Ghana works, no matter how much you think you know Ghana. If you stay away from Ghana for 10 years, when you come back, you need three years to really understand the culture again. So when I went in, I was not in the right frame of mind to carry on with the podcast I had started. So I stopped. And then after COVID, I started seeing different types of podcasts coming out. Video style, um, Chris Williamson, um Stephen Butler, Chris Huberman. You know, I you know, I was seeing a lot of these, um, Ken Coleman, who is who I watch his podcast a lot.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

Great podcast, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

And I said, you know what? I need to bring this back again.

SPEAKER_03 16:51

Connected minds. Yeah, what was the thinking behind that name?

SPEAKER_01 16:55

So initially, um, well, let me let me let me take you back. Usually, when we are coming up with names, I'm talking from active to every other business we've done. I usually pick up the names of my wife. So we go through a set of names. So these times we open our chat, and then she drops a set of names, and I drop a few, and then we agree on mind step. Right. So I created we we created everything for it, and I'm talking branding, everything was done. And then we we put it in a studio. Now, one day I go into the studio, we had not started, and then I saw the name, and something told me this is the wrong name for this podcast. Mind step. Mindstep. So I sent a message quickly and I said, Babe, we need to change the name. And she goes, Okay, and we come back again. So we started, started, started, and then all of a sudden, there's one day we just woke up in the morning, and then we all agree that this name, connected minds, would work, but it was always going to have minds in it because I'm a product of that, you know. I I like the whole mind stuff. I think it's it's it's the God in us, it's a creator with us. Um, and and and once you can use it properly, then your life can change. So we settled with connected minds, and basically the thinking is that you're having conversations with a set of people and then picking essentially picking their brains, right, to become great. Think about it like that.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

Yeah, very powerful. Yeah, you know, sometimes we start these things, and um I'm not sure how far in advance you project some of the stuff, you know. But did you have a business structure to what you were doing?

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Yeah, yeah. Connected minds, everything you're seeing is in the plan, and there are more things we are going to do. That's all in the plan. The end goal for this is to have an elite-level network for entrepreneurs, like, and I'm talking elite level with access everywhere. You know, uh, you can pick up a phone and call Teddy because Teddy is part of the elite group, yeah, and he'll be able to help you because you're part of you know the project. Now, in between, we are going to do um an investment project as well where we invest in entrepreneurs uh on the continent. Um, I've been speaking to a lot of people about this, including um citizen Kofi. Um you know, we had an extensive conversation about this. So there are really key people in the country who are going to be part of this wow, this agenda, right? Uh everything you are seeing, I'm talking the plan we have this year for Nigeria. It's it was all part of the plan that we do two years and we give free content, free value. After two years, we start building the Dere Cabalete brand. It was all part of the plan. Okay, all right. We build that brand, we're gonna expand the team to this level, and then you know, as technology allows us, we can cut back, but everything is part of the plan. University tours, um, it's all part of the plan.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

That that's uh that's a thorough way of looking at it.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Yeah, there's a whole constitution about how I want this to be because Teddy, there are a few things I enjoy, you know.

SPEAKER_03 20:01

People what are some of these?

SPEAKER_01 20:03

The number one thing I enjoy is what we are doing. I like to listen to people, I like to have intellectual conversations, I enjoy it to the max. Um, you take that away from me, and I'll live a miserable life. Yeah, right. So the connected minds is it's something I genuinely enjoy. Right. Um, even if I stop going on screens, I would want to have a community where I'm just listening to people's uh share and then asking questions off screens.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

Community is very important, yeah. You know, it it makes you or gives you the ability to turn whatever the passion is into something sustainable, you know, and uh clearly it means a lot to you, yeah. You know, so where where exactly are you in terms of your your layout with uh connected minds? You know, you said that it comes with a whole lot of things, yeah. So uh let's let's just break it down for for uh someone you know maybe seeing this for the first time or hearing you for the first time. Where are you on your journey and and what is available now and what the next steps are? So let's let's just have a reflective conversation now on where you are on the connected minds.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Yes. So at the moment where we are is community building. Yeah. Um, I think a lot of people who watch us have seen that we are pushing a lot of people into our community groups, um, doing a lot of uh events, which is slightly right behind the community engagement. We did our first event last year, Connected Minds Live, which was completely sold out within three months of announcement. Um this year we are doing more. But this is where we are. The next level really um is the youth empowerment through uh you know giving back to the entrepreneurs, investing in them, uh taking a piece of their business and allowing them to also grow and to shine.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

That's so w what are these events that you've been doing, you know, like the you're doing you you're taking podcasting to like cinemas, you know. I call you podcast rock star. Podcast Rockstar now. You're doing amazing stuff that is is on head of um in terms of like uh the the community drive, yeah, you know. But what has these events and uh even the podcast itself, you know, what has it taught you about about community in general?

SPEAKER_01 22:34

I think what the internet took away from us is a real community. That's what the internet took away from us, and people are, and it's gonna get worse, people are going to be getting more soaked into the internet that they are going to miss this, and that's what we are bringing back. We are saying to people that two, three, four. Sometimes I think people they get access, we go and play golf, they get a chance to interact with each other, myself, and have conversations. We take them to the cinemas, we take them to Connected Minds Life. We are doing all of these physical things because that's what humanity is going to be missing in the next few years.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

Pardon me.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Right. And for me, this also means that there's a big part that we have to play from you know showing people on the screens to actually physically associating with them. You know, it's it's it's it's a powerful thing.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

And you've shown like that people actually want to pay for. Yes. Because we've had conversations where you were talking about some of the events and then watching it on your profile, it you know, it fills me with joy. You say, all right, I've I've booked this cinema and we are going to sit down with this lady and talk about X, X, X, X, X, X. So there is always that feeling that people don't want to pay for unless it's entertainment. Yeah, it's not a good thing. So it's not true.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

It's a barrier we have to break. It's not true. Um, Teddy, before, look, I I can boldly say that Connected Minds popularized podcasting in Ghana. I can boldly say that before Connected Minds, there were podcasts in the country, however, it was not done the way we chose to do it. We have made it more popular in the country. We were sitting at you know the office, the new office we have at Connected House, and a time comes where we say, Okay, we need to go to the pool side um to do our you know daily conversations. And then one young guy comes in, a cinema goes, When are we taking the podcast to the cinema? We had only two weeks, and I said, pick a date. When do you want it to happen? And four guys, one girl, they very quickly started making phone calls. They picked a date, we announced it, and it's it sells out. Wow. Now, when we went into you know this whole podcasting industry, people were not paying for information-based content. They were not paying for information-based content. So, our first connected minds live, we were shocked it was sold out that fast.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

And when you say sold out, you know, that's roughly.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

I mean, we had 375 paid tickets, and on the day we had 150 people show up and we had to do an overflow on the topic. Oh, okay, right, right. Right. And for me, that was marvelous. We had people who flew in from Dubai, from France, from Sunyani, from Tamali to come to Accra for Connected Minds Life.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

And what did that do for your confidence?

SPEAKER_01 25:48

I was emotional, actually. Before we talk about confidence, I was emotional. Um I've taken the path of IT, business, music, and now content. Right. And content has humbled me. It has humbled me. Talk more about that. Content has humbled me in a way that the business hasn't. The business has always been about money, but content has been about people. And you see people tell you that they came all the way from Kumasi and drove six hours to come because the videos you've created has changed their life. I sit somewhere and somebody walks straight to me and said, That conversation you did about marriage saved my marriage. It humbles me. It makes me feel as though indeed, we are not here for ourselves, but for people. The truth is that if impact was about your family and friends, you don't have to do much. But because impact is about people who are beyond these two classes of people, that's why you have to try harder to help other people.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

So these are like clear examples of what you're doing, the impact is having. But what are some of the success stories from the events that you know you you've heard, apart from like impacting people directly? But personally, for you, what's that success story that you would want to highlight from live events, from your conversations, you know, dealing with people directly?

SPEAKER_01 27:33

I think I've been able to build a network that the young delicate, even if I stayed in London for the last six years, I would have never um it's giving me access and leverage, you know, in Ghana at least. And for me, you can't put price on it. You can't. I've also been able to see a lot of um business ideas. People come to me with a lot of business ideas, they share their problems with me. I know so much about what happens in the country now simply by doing connected minds because people actually come to me and tell me that uh we do surveys, I put a survey out to ask questions about you know, and people we have over 500 respondents. People are really paying attention to me. I it's just data, there's so much data coming to us now, which is marvelous.

SPEAKER_03 28:37

Yeah, Derek is here, you know. It is, it is. Um, it's tea is getting cold, but you you've taken a huge uh better on on the on the creative economy, yeah. Um, you know, not just betting on technology, but let's talk about the platform, um, you know, the community that you've built, because it's important, you know. I think you you you said to me, uh, you know, you you you're gonna be one of our users. So I've taken time out to to really go through the platform. I know it's still there's a lot to come, you know, but the initial phase of it, you know, what is available to to us as creators. Let's talk about your platform, what it's called, and and the reason why you decided to to bet on not just uh on the on the creators, but but on technology as well.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

Yeah. You know, if you look through my story, I've always loved technology. Yeah, and I've loved the love for the computers and stuff. It's huge. Um there is so much that Teddy I want to create in terms of tech that now it has become possible because of AI. Sometimes I have the ideas in my head, but I'm not able to bring it out properly for somebody to create what I'm thinking. With AI, I'm able to do that. Doing this podcast showed me that my people were looking for a place that we can put all the content, we can give them premium content, give them access to um you know perks. I've spoken to a lot of creators in Ghana, and I see that most of them revert to some platforms in Nigeria, others, you know, in the US. It doesn't serve the purpose because of our payment structure, the payment gateways that we have, they did not serve the purpose. I was in my classroom office where I do uh um brainstorming with my you know team, and we were on the board and we started listening or listening listening all the problems that we face.

SPEAKER_03 30:39

Ruffy, how many people are in your team?

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Oh so outside of Ghana, we have two people. In Ghana, we have eight. Okay. Eight, yeah. Right. So we're having conversation, and we're like, okay, what are we looking for? Because we are at the moment we are building our community on another platform, but it doesn't serve the purpose. And we decided we're going to build our own. Even if nobody uses it, we will use it. Okay. And it will solve our problems.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Right. Today. And when you say solve your problems, what what's what exactly are you using? Okay. Because we look at these platforms, these are platforms that are built not just for uh, you know, not specifically for for African creators to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Yeah, but there are some things they can do, right, to make it better. One is notifications, people are living a busy life, yeah. So the more you notify them about what the creators are doing, the more they want to jump into the community platform. Most communities are left and there's no engagement, nothing is happening in the community. And the reason is because the people who build those systems don't they don't scale up the notification system. Also, number two is that the people in the community must learn, but there's only way, there's only one way that people actually learn properly, is if they have a teacher, right? So we figured it out with tribe.io, and the plan with tribe is that every person has an AI accountability partner, so it picks your likes, dislikes, everything that you do. What do you actually do now? And it matches you with somebody in the group, right? So the two of you can connect. Right, so this person can check up on you, you check up on them, even though there's the creator who is in the platform, but you also have somebody. So if the creator is not available, there's still somebody you are connecting with.

SPEAKER_03 32:27

Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

And that has been a way where we we allow people to keep you know engaging in the community platform, right? And that's why tribe is different. If you go on tribe, you also see on the homepage that we compare it with several platforms like Patreon and School. We beat them by so much. You see the comparison on the page. Uh, one of our success stories on Tribe, which we haven't exactly launched, but you know, we are still in a testing phase, yes, and it's already paying out. Our first payouts for a creator was 2000 cities, and he joined only a week.

SPEAKER_03 33:01

And so when you say creator, what exactly are they?

SPEAKER_01 33:04

So he is um he teaches people how to do distribution, so pick up a product and distribute it, you know, uh, and then make money. Uh, we did a conversation on connected minds. As soon as we finished, he had created his community, gave us the link, we slapped it there, and people started paying to have access to him. The second person we have is Obin Dako. Obindaku literally just joined three days ago. Three days ago, he joined tribe. Who's Obin Dako? Obin Darkon is um he speaks about African consciousness, why an African must know themselves and the benefit of that in growing in building wealth. That if you know yourself and know where you're from, your cultural values and your traditional values, then it's easier for you to build wealth. Um, he's crossed well over 10,000, he's been with us for three days, right? So I know the power that what we are building is going to give to creators. My biggest problem is that a lot of creators they create for the fame, they don't create for the money. For me, it's always building a machine, and a machine I mean business behind what you do. If there's no business behind it, you're going to struggle. That's the reason why a lot of your musicians and um whatnot in the in in footballers, even right? They make all the money, they get the fame, but then they go broke again because there is no machine behind them, right? Either they are not listening to the people that advise them or they get too excited and then they lose what they have. So I'm building a system that makes somebody monetize their craft simply by teaching and being available for other people. It's only for teaching. Um, no, it's for community building, right? So you have a classroom on there where you can build your course on there. You also have exclusive content on there, uh, where you can give it to the community as well. Uh, you can create ebooks, you can create you can have you can have a real engagement with the people who buy into your idea as a creator.

SPEAKER_03 34:56

So you you've you've seen how creators you know struggle. You know, what what what is it like for you to see that happen? You know, when you when you see that people are really like maybe blowing their time away. Like you mentioned clearly, footballers, yeah, musicians. We've seen this over and over and over and over. But they never learn. So how does that make you feel?

SPEAKER_01 35:18

It makes me feel sad, right? It it makes me feel as if you know there's a switch that they just simply don't want to turn on. I mean, I don't want to mention names, but there's so many African footballers, musicians, and creators who have gone broke simply by not taking the right steps. And you know, the blueprint is there. You know, it's not rocket science to buy a few properties and invest in properties when the money is coming. But I don't know what it is, maybe it's excitement that gets in there.

SPEAKER_03 35:47

I think one of the the um the biggest challenges, you know, for for platforms, particularly when it's built, like you said, specifically for for Africans, you know, it comes with I mean the payment uh challenges, you know, the uh retention actually, how to be able to to retain people that you you initially get in. You know, so what are you uh uh doing to maximize some of these things, you know, like the payment challenges, the uh you know, building the community and also sustaining it beyond just a one year or two years, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:25

So on the payment side, we are integrated with with the African payment system and the Western payment system. So because the company is registered in both in Ghana and in the UK, okay. Right, so what that means is that a creator in Africa can still monetize their fans in in the UK, US, Canada, or well wherever, and still be able to get payout, and your payout is usually instant. Right. Um, in terms of the creators, so we we're going to start doing what we call the creator education using tribe. So we call the creators. See, what we are trying to do is to build a community of creators as well as community of podcast lovers.

SPEAKER_03 37:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

So you build the creators, you put them in a room together, and that's what tribe is serving. And that's what tribe is serving. You educate them about how to monetize their content properly without a burnout, right? Not always creating content on YouTube because you're chasing the algorithm.

SPEAKER_03 37:15

And community, not content, is the real growth. Yes. You know, community is the the real catalyst for for growth, you know. So in in terms of uh like you know, what have you the my my question I was gonna ask is, you know, like uh what what what did you discover about African creators, you know? Uh they succeed when they they build communities, you know, in building communities, you know. What did you discover from uh you mentioned what's the name of and then you saw another one who's made uh 2000, you know. What did you discover from these two uh examples?

SPEAKER_01 37:54

I think it because they have real interest in teaching people what they know, you know, when your content is not just lifestyle and it has real value in teaching something that can change people's lives, most users or your fan base will be willing to pay for you so that you can take them on that journey. So, as a creator, for me, if it's something you want to monetize, it shouldn't just be lifestyle because actually influencing in the West is going down, it's user-generated content, it's what is actually moving products, and that's what brands are paying for now. So that means that a brand can come to you, even though you're not a big creator, and make allow you to create a user-generated content, and they will push their product. So that means the influencer game in the West, you know, it's it's eventually going down. For now, it's still big in Africa because you know, for some reason, we still like that game.

SPEAKER_03 38:50

I think people should really direct what they want to create into value that will change somebody's life, and that's what the algorithm is taught us lately, that you don't even have to. I mean, you may have a million followers, but it doesn't necessarily translate into anything else, you know. It's the engagement, how people and this all falls back into communities. Yes, you know, like what's what sort of environment have you built? Yeah, what what does it take to get on on Tribe on a platform like this?

SPEAKER_01 39:19

Yeah, so at the moment it's it's 300 cities, um, which is about 29. Is it$29 or$25? Or a month? A month to get on. And then the company takes 10% of our transactions. Um, that's how we used to do admin and processing. Um, and then that's it. And then we give you a dedicated manager who helps you through your journey of setting up your account.

SPEAKER_03 39:44

You know, you have a it's like the the joy of seeing a baby growing, yeah, you know, and you have people signed up on these platforms that are using it, you are getting there. Uh what was there anything that was different from uh the sort of expectations that you had when you you know you were creating this platform? I think have you seen anything that's different from what you expected?

SPEAKER_01 40:10

Um I thought we would have to do a big launch for people to accept it, but you know, I speak to a creator and I say, look, you need to get on trial. And they're like, Yeah, it solves my problem. I've I've I actually what I did was I brought three creators who are not on tribe at the moment into their office, and then I opened it up on our screen and gave them a demo. They loved it. In fact, that was the decision to launch. I, if we've had any challenges as well, I think it's been bugs, you know, building this, uh the it's just the bugs that keeps happening. But with the help of AI, we're able to solve that.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

Interesting, you mentioned AI.

SPEAKER_01 40:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

So, how are you utilizing uh AI on a platform? And how are you also keeping the creators at the center of it? Yeah, because I think one of the biggest challenges for people, or when AI is mentioned, is that they think everything is just artificial, like basically artificial. So, how are you keeping creators at the center of this while benefiting from the use of artificial?

SPEAKER_01 41:13

We are making sure that the human element remains. Um, but what we are using as you know a method to help us is the AI accountability bodies and the partners. That is auto-matching. It matches you with the person because he knows you know what they do, their lives and things, and then you know, place you right now.

SPEAKER_03 41:30

So it's like a tender for there you go, there you go. Those are you know, it matches you to whoever you know feels you're compatible with, yeah. Yeah, then uh you know, so we we here with Derek, uh connected house, yeah, connected minds. So it's like you're giving us the iteration of things, you know. We started with a podcast, you know, you came to connect uh house uh tribe now.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

You know what is interesting. So connected house is actually going to start raising money very soon. Um what do you mean raising? Yeah, so we're building as a startup, right? We have we are we're launching a second podcast, uh, which Richard Akita is going to be in charge of Unbroken is a relationship podcast, and the plan is not really just to talk about relationship, but it's relationship coaching, how to do marriage and relationships properly. Um that's coming out very soon. So you have Connected Mind, uh Connected House as a umbrella company, then you have Tribe, then you have Connected Minds, and then you have Unbroken Podcast, and then you have Connected Minds Live, Connected Academy, all of that.

SPEAKER_03 42:34

Yeah, it's like a series of things that are always coming together, you know. And you you look at uh like a country like Ghana, for instance, you know, there are so many uh skit makers, you know, there are so many uh uh content creators, you know, different, but I think you know that it gets to a point where it becomes like if people realize that this is really successful, yes, then more or less towing the same line, you know. How important is is diversity uh to tribe and then how are you going to make sure that all these fashions of uh creativity is is thriving in this tribe basically?

SPEAKER_01 43:17

Um it's people, you know. The success of any company is how good your staff members are. If the team is doing a great job, you should be able to maintain any business at any level. We have like look, the average person I work with, their age is 20 years. I work with students, um, a lot of Gen Zs, people who know what is happening now, right? And I think what most companies do is you know they go with um you know the people who have years of experience, which is great. But if you have one for me, if you have one person who has got experience, you need a younger people to lead the team. Because they have the new age thinking. And that's how I think we're gonna stay stay ahead. The issue with you know people copying what we are doing and all of that, it doesn't bother me. Because the way I always look at things is that if I start selling Macs, very soon I'm gonna start selling the machine that's used to create the Macs and the prop the right ceramic that's used to so I expand based on this. That's how I always look at it in a business. If it's watches I'm making, believe me, I'm gonna start selling every aspect of it, it becomes a whole and energy because it creates their company. That's how I look at it, right? And which is why it's gonna be very difficult to compete with what you are doing because we're expanding, and because if you before you think we we we just launched something else, you know, we just keep engaging the community in different things.

SPEAKER_03 44:47

No, my my my I think one of the my burning desires, you know, I'm sure you've known me for for a long time, that one of my burning desires is for particularly African creators to be able to turn that passion into something sustainable and then also yielding, you know, simply put, make money from from their uh their purpose and passion, you know. So if you look at uh what you're doing, looking back, uh what do you hope uh tribe and connected mind, you know, connected the whole ecosystem uh will enable African creators in the next uh 10 years? What would what what do you think you know will enable them to achieve that level that you want to do?

SPEAKER_01 45:33

They're gonna the system we're building there is is going to allow um creators to build a real community. And I'm not just talking online people.

SPEAKER_03 45:42

In the next 10 years, what are you looking at?

SPEAKER_01 45:44

Where they can go to different countries and be able to have access to their face-to-face, actual community, hang out with them, offer them something, do the next, and then the next and the next. I the way I look at it is that the whole thing is going to move from people just wanting to associate with a creator online, they would want to have a feel of them, see them, interact with them, ask questions. The human nature, the human aspect is going to come in. And that's what Tribe is here to give to creators. They would also be able to make money, you know, because you don't go to these places for free, right? You organize events and your people be willing to pay and support. You know, and and and as a creator, it's very important that you have a sustainable income. If that is taken care of, then every other thing is it becomes just a part of it, but not as important. Today, we have to chase algorithms. You create content today, then you create another day. We release about four pieces of content every day. Every day.

SPEAKER_03 46:46

You'll be doing that consistently for like the last two years.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

Yes. But why? It needs to get to a point where even if you don't release, your community are paying into your craft, and you can still live a good life.

SPEAKER_03 47:01

You know, benefiting from that intellectual property that you're you've created. But how does that vision, you know, how does that motivate you daily?

SPEAKER_01 47:17

For me, it's it's always I get a burst of calling motif dopamine when the thing is actually done. What's the name? Mutti. Yeah, yeah, that's what they call it. Or dopamine, right? Dopamine. Um when the thing is actually done. So it's always constantly having this as the end goal. So this is the end goal, and then these are the steps to get to where we need to get to. But as soon as when I'm on the journey, I don't feel anything. It's for me, it's just a journey to achieve what we are doing. But as soon as we finish, then it's like there's a boost of dopamine, but it goes down very quickly, and then I look for the next thing. My motivation comes from seeing creators, you know. I would want to see creators in Africa have real substance beyond settings. You know, when you say settings, you know at the moment is a lot of settings is is what like pretending to be fake, fake, it's a fake life of you know, I have this money, I have that, flying, doing this, but it's it's all on on budget. And it's nothing really coming in.

SPEAKER_03 48:30

So, what's that one impact that you'll be proudest of?

SPEAKER_01 48:36

When I started Connected Minds, my plan was to raise 50,000 entrepreneurs in Africa. 50. 50,000.

SPEAKER_03 48:44

Where where are you on that journey?

SPEAKER_01 48:48

I have not measured it yet, but we will very soon. 50,000. So that means that if we're able to raise 50,000 even across West Africa, we will solve a lot of unemployment issues. Um, so if I arrive there, I'll be very happy. I'll be very fulfilled.

SPEAKER_03 49:09

So what what is that one thing about leadership, creativity, and and impact that you would want to pass on to the next generation?

SPEAKER_01 49:21

That a leader must know how to do the job first before delegating. Um, leadership is not about control, it's about knowing and being able to direct people. Most of the time when I step into the studio, I have people who can help me, but I know everything in the studio. So if my staff member calls me and says it's traffic and I can't make it, I just say, okay, relax and stay at home. I can get it done. Two years ago, when I started a podcast, I was doing I did about 80% of the port myself because I know what I'm doing. I can stand in the pharmacy and sell, do everything. I can go to um Macola and go and buy the goods I need to buy. Knowing how to get the job done is very important as a leader, otherwise, you would always be expecting the unexpected. Yeah, people will disappoint you. We are human beings, right? But if they know you know what they are doing, then your expectation becomes what how you know how to do it. And most people don't do that, especially across Africa. They just put them in a position to lead. Right? You check in in our politics, right? They can pick this person who's a musician and put them in the CEO of Ghana Post. What do they know about post? That was a specific one.

SPEAKER_03 50:38

Specific one.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

Yeah, it's it's for me. That's the reason why we are where we are. But there's somebody in that job who has worked there, been a general manager or whatever, whatever, for the past 20 10 years. You will not put them in a position of CEO because it's not part of the party. Right.

SPEAKER_03 50:56

So uh, Derek, you've you've built uh a platform, a podcast platform, which has you know thrived beyond the the borders of Ghana, you know, now international basically. Uh you're doing these tours, you're moving from from town to town, city to city. Uh, you're here in London. Tribe. Um I focused on on that today because I think it's something that is really going to change the lives of creators uh out there in uh the continent. Something built by one of us who understands the challenges that we face as a creator yourself, you know. So uh you've talked about how people can get on this platform, you know. If you can sum up what and where they need to go, and then at what stage that they will start seeing some of the benefits, uh, you know, whether it's right away, everything is open, you know, what is the uh the website and then the final information you want to pass on to anyone who's looking to maximize their creativity?

SPEAKER_01 52:01

Yeah, so to start it off, um, first the content you are creating on social media must be targeted towards lessons, um lectures, um, exclusive videos. And you know, think of that one person. This is the person I'm creating content for. What do you want to teach this person? What must this person know about what you know? That's what where it starts. Then you are creating several pieces of content on YouTube, Facebook, all these other platforms, then it becomes that becomes the machine. You then direct people on to tribe.io. This one person now likes your content about this, so they follow you on tribe. So you go on tribe now, and because you've already got this in mind for this one person, you sign up, create your community. If this person says, Okay, cool, I I want to be part of a community, you send them a link, you have a public page link, send it to them, they join in there. Now, this person needs value in the community, and the value you give is what you promised on the other social media platforms, right? You create a course for them, you keep doing that to push people in the community. This person pays you every month simply because they like what you do and they want to learn, but at some point, people in the community would also live because now they some of them some of them can become bigger than you, and they need to go off and build their own community, they need to go and create their own content, they need to go and do what they need to do because life, you know, people change.

SPEAKER_03 53:25

Creators and creators, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 53:27

So you need to keep building on all the other platforms as well and keep pushing people and tribe, and that's how you make a sustainable income.

SPEAKER_03 53:34

Every one of us has a mobile phone. Uh, we all have one or two social media platforms, if not more. The problem is not about creativity or it's not about talent, the issue is that we lack structures, and this is what I've heard today that tribe is here to give us that structure that will be able to take things beyond just uh from passion phase into uh uh a sustainable uh career path based business, you know, turning your your ideas into uh real gains or real income. Yeah, you know. Eric, what's up?

SPEAKER_01 54:11

What's the website? Tribe.io. So it's tr Ibe.io.io. Right, you go on tribe.io, sign up um as a creator, uh, pay your money, and yeah, let's build.

SPEAKER_03 54:26

And you can create from any part of the world.

SPEAKER_01 54:28

Any part of the world. In fact, what's more interesting is that imagine you are a Western creator, but you have a huge fan base in Africa. But Africa will use Momo. So they will not be able to join your community on other platforms, but on tribe, they can join. You get your international customers and you also get the African people.