Featuring Michael Bedzra
Five years ago, Michael Bedzra was just volunteering at Mobex 2019, and was handed a Twitter account with zero experience. Within two days, the event's hashtags were trending number one in Ghana. That single moment sparked something big, leading Michael to land his first shot at Workspace Global with no marketing degree, just pure drive.
[0:00] From Bildx Studios, this is the Colours of Social Media podcast, the podcast for people who believe in digital marketing. Here's your host, Enoch RobotBoy, Appiah Jr.
[0:30] Bobedzra was just volunteering at MOBES 2019. He was handed the Twitter account with zero experience, but within two days, the event hashtag was trending number one in Ghana.
[0:44] That single moment sparked something big. Hungry to grow? He walked up to one of the speakers, asked for an internship, and landed his first shot at Workspace Global, with no marketing degree, just pure drive. Since then, Michael has built his own career from the ground up.
[1:04] He taught himself every aspect of digital marketing and now works as a group marketer for a top UK brand. In this episode of Colours of Social Media, Michael shares the real story, the wins, the failures, and the lessons from his journey, from turning down low paying gigs to building a strong freelance income to mentoring others through online courses.
[1:27] You and I know that Michael's journey is proof that passion, consistency, and curiosity can open doors, even without a traditional background. If you've ever wondered whether you need a degree to make it in marketing, this one's for you. Follow Colours of Social Media on Spotify and subscribe on YouTube so you never miss an episode. Now let's get into the conversation.
[1:50] All right, let's start. Basically, we know the topic that we are talking about, so I sort of did a research on you, most especially your 19th page, and I got a couple of posts that you posted there. You've had a handsome moment. I mean, your main handsome moment came when you helped organize Mobile 2019, right? Basically, you were managing the Twitter presence and you even got them to train on Twitter. Three days in a row.
[2:27] Three days in a row. Now, what I want to know is what sparked that confidence to dive in, considering you were a newbie. What sparked that confidence?
[2:44] I think this was in level 300, second semester. I had a very good friend, Joshua, who was very close to the organizers of Mobex, and they needed people on board, basically, to manage their Twitter accounts. The text was simple. Got a number of Twitter accounts, tweets, retweets, and just share about the event. If you've ever heard of tweets decks, you can manage about nine years accounts as it goes. We were a team of three people, two good friends of mine and myself, and we went for the event. First time managing anything like that. I actually didn't get into Twitter somewhere last year. They gave us the tags, take pictures, tweet, retweets from the other accounts, and that's it. No prior experience. If I told you we knew we were going to, even the organizers didn't believe it. Funny enough, it looks like the boys were, like I said, hungry and needed to get a job done. We just kept going and going. First day, we were trending on Twitter number one, then we went out until the event was over.
[3:56] It was just like, you know what, maybe this would be interesting to do. The lady who was supervising the entire project was Amasaki. Yeah, I was about to come there. How did you meet her right after that?
[4:11] She has always been a friendly lady, a good mentor to be to as well. I have to mention that. During the event, she was supervising us, basically working us through almost everything. After the event, why don't you just talk to these people and see? We all know that for MUNI, I think level 400, you're allowed to do a all-level turn out to your composers' intention.
[4:37] Yeah. Yeah, so I was like, you know what, why don't I just ask Amasaki to do a workspace? Yeah, a workspace. I just worked with her. If there is any, that's what I told her specifically, if there is any rule, if there is any opportunity to work at a workspace. I didn't even know what workspace was there. Just call me and let me know. She took mine.
[4:58] Was it when they were at, because they were housed at Ice Base La Bonilla, or when they were at Nanyba? Chardo. Chardo. Right. When they were at Chardo. That's the first time I also met Sibbi Sam.
[5:14] Yeah. Another great person. Excellent guy. So I just took my chances. And I think over the the past five, six years, I've learned, trust your instincts and just be willing to explore.
[5:30] And you get where you want to. Maybe the paths would be much different than what you hope for. I studied business administration, and I'm full-time marketing. Who would have known?
[5:41] After that, my sister still teases me that, why did I win? Do you know what I did? What did you do? Okay, just make a question. Accounting? No. I love dumbbells.
[5:52] I actually did biology. Y'all kidding? In a way, you are just like me. I did biology in uni, applied biology. I did my internship at a hospital.
[6:06] What happened to you? I mean, yeah. That is, you know, one is hunger. And another one is, you know, following the passion. Yeah. Yeah, because I found out that, you know, marketing is the way, I mean, I love sciences, but marketing is also another form of science. So I had to apply the science in there.
[6:26] So that's true. Basically, yeah. That's true. That's one thing I've also come to lend to Aswell. I think a week or two ago, I was talking to a client and he's so much in the hurry to make money of the product he's selling. And I'm letting him know that. Listen, the way people buy two or three years ago is not the way people buy now.
[6:48] No. There are lots of scammers. There are lots of unverified businesses online. So even influencer marketing has changed. Because I know the influencer is being paid to promote a product.
[6:59] That doesn't mean a trusted person to buy it. First, people need to know about your brand. They need to form a connection or community before they would consider buying from you.
[7:13] So there is a science to it now. Previously, I see an advert on Instagram Facebook and I'm like, okay, I want to try it out. Now, I'm sorry. There are lots of scammers. So yes, marketing is a science now.
[7:28] So thank you for that. By surprising, you moved from biology to marketing. So about, I mean, let's stay on this topic for a while. I have my ways of learning, doing my own learning, you know, for me transitioning from biology to marketing.
[7:47] But I want to know how did you structure your learning? Because right now, from what you are doing now, it's totally different from what you learn in school.
[7:56] So I want to know how you structured your learning to learn everything by yourself. I wouldn't say there was a structural place. It's up to date.
[8:08] I still don't believe exactly how everything went. I started with page management, then went to writing captions. When you have to know English, no charge if you sit down and crack your brains and come up with whatever.
[8:21] Good old times. No, those were no good old times. Considering now I can sit down two hours and create an entire content calendar. No, those were no good old times.
[8:30] They were for technology. But you see, I had the opportunity to work with someone who allowed me to explore. Right. One thing about, like I said, I've already mentioned Sydney Sam.
[8:45] After working with Emma, I met Sydney and he was like, who is this guy? He didn't even know I was working with the company for about three months.
[8:54] So he was like, what are you doing? I'm managing client speeches. Do you want to work on workspace brand with me? He was like, okay, what do we need to do?
[9:01] This is my vision. This is what you need to do. Have at it. I started managing the, how do you call it? Workspaces, official pages. Then I was like, you know, there's something called email marketing.
[9:16] What is email marketing? Go online, read a couple of blog posts, watch YouTube, test it out. My voice kind of understood or at least known what people want to see and people want to read, which is very important when it comes to marketing, even just copywriting.
[9:32] So I should, if I tell you that there is a structure that is just like, this is the tax you want to do, go online. HubSpot is always a great place to learn.
[9:43] I'm not going to lie. And one of my favorite pages now to learn about marketing is Pretty Little Marketers. Trust me, Pretty Little Marketers.
[9:54] The lady is good. It's not even a Ghanaian, I mean, considering where I work now. So they break down marketing and then brand building and switch us into deep dive, influencer marketing, the new trends, what global brands are doing.
[10:09] And I like to add this. I love what Ghanaian brands are doing now too. Cowbell are sticking the lead. Is it Promacito? Promacito. Crazy content putting out.
[10:21] Silverbed is now also killing it on Twitter. It's interesting to see what they are doing, but if you really want to learn and understand where these trends are coming from, HubSpot, Pretty Little Marketers is a good brand to start to as well.
[10:34] So that's why I started. And YouTube, right? Good old YouTube, yeah. Exactly. But now YouTube is a little bit over-saturated. Everybody is saying the same thing.
[10:43] But yes, there was no structure. It's just, what do we want to do? Test it out, look at the analytics and scale it up from there. I'm still going back to your post on LinkedIn.
[10:54] You mentioned that in your first job interview, or even one of your job interviews, I'm bringing you memories. Yeah, a place where you used to release me.
[11:09] Yeah. So yeah, then I guess you know where I'm driving at. Definitely. Yeah, this interview you failed. It was a bump. It was a bump. Yeah. Now, I want to know how did it affect your confidence level?
[11:21] Bro, I nearly died. Wow. The question was very simple. The question that I feel the entire interview goes, what is the hashtag? Jesus Christ.
[11:30] What is the hashtag? What is the ease of a hashtag? Bro, I found more like 15 minutes. Wow. Dude, I still remember that day. I- Sorry, sorry for saying to you.
[11:40] This is trauma. Now it's very interesting. People see me and they tell me that you're a DB. I couldn't pay uni fees. Wow. Friends literally. I remember after this, the guy that paid for my transport to go for a white space interview, Molly.
[11:57] Wow. Because I was like, I have an interview. I can't go. I was like, nah, I took this 56 and go. Yes, but- I went and I bumped. So imagine- Ooh, Molly's investment.
[12:06] Molly's investment. So it was, I challenged- How did you bounce out of that? Actually, I didn't think they would ever call me back. Honestly.
[12:17] I wasn't that close to am I now? I wasn't then like I am now with that. So I didn't really think they would call me back. I had forgotten about it.
[12:26] Funny, I was looking for an internship with Workspace 9 and I was doing the insurance. Working around with me and trying to send insurance for my final year.
[12:34] Intention. About two or three months later, I go called. Hey, I'm looking for a page manager at Workspace 9. It's like, yeah. Already I had researched it and I noticed four states and I said, ah, that was the time of that.
[12:50] So that's how I went. Honestly, I didn't think they would call me back. It made me understand that, Charlie. You don't know everything, you know, because I spent like three days reading.
[13:03] Wow, and you missed- And I missed- To date, I still can't believe it. What is the hashtag and what is it used for? To date, I can't believe that's what made me feel my first interview.
[13:14] Yeah. But then, I'm grateful to Jude, to Amma, for giving me the chance to do this or just giving me a second chance to actually get to prove myself.
[13:25] Yeah, and I mean, yeah, you proved yourself. Wendy eventually put you on the list that come on. Exactly. So, and like I said, Charlie, when you're hungry, the vision and the passion is different.
[13:36] And I think that's something that I'm currently not seeing even with my students for the special media classes. You don't see the hunger, eh?
[13:44] It's like, yeah, we were talking about it before you came in. I mean, we were hungry then. Now, oh no. But I mean, I think everyone is full. They are full?
[13:57] What do you mean by they're full? They are full, I mean. Because usually for the course, it is just for the course, after everything, I give you a test.
[14:07] Yeah. I'm not saying sit down and crack your head. After every course, I teach you how to use strategy to do everything. I believe in systems.
[14:14] Of course. So how to come up with a social media strategy, I have given you a template, giving you how to use strategy to do your research and edit it.
[14:23] Bro, out of about 70 people, you don't believe only about five or seven people. Actually, then they're working. And they paid for the classes.
[14:32] Well, that's money in your pocket. But then again, the overall goal. It never makes sense to me. Even up to date, you meet people that tell you I want to do social.
[14:43] I feel like the glamour that comes with being a social media manager, digital marketer, and spreading SEO. That is what is driving people. Yeah.
[15:01] I don't know because I've had the same experience. Yeah. Someone came up to me that I should organize classes for. Could you believe every Sunday, I took time out of my shadow to meet them.
[15:15] Initially, we got, I was having like 15 students, but in time I was done with eight modules. I was left with two students. You should, what happened?
[15:24] I don't know. They just dropped off. Yeah, they just dropped off missing classes. And the thing is that if you miss a class, there's no way I will go back.
[15:34] Oh, you don't record? No. Man, no, we can't. Because definitely they are not being, they are not paying. No, they are not paying. So you see these resources and all that.
[15:45] But then thinking about that day, actually the last two suggested I should record. I'm thinking my next, if something of this comes, I'll record and just do it.
[15:57] I do record. But I also think that sometimes they think it's easy. Nothing about socials is easy. One of my students is currently managing a page.
[16:08] Every African and he's creating content and posting and he's not getting the engagement and he's complaining. She's crying. You are even using AI.
[16:19] AI. Imagine that we needed to be able to read blog posts, transcribe that into content, come and create copy and captions and post and manage.
[16:30] Man, we are posting at that. We weren't even complaining then. So I think once they get to realize, maybe there's also about how, should I say, difficult it is, most people are like, no, this is not for me.
[16:43] But if you do it quite well, currently one of my student is, she just started, she had a class with me and she met one of my colleagues I introduced, Sunita, founder of these company initiative.
[17:01] She just spoke with a lady and then she's on her way to get him a very good lucrative deal. But that's paying him more that current. Yeah, what she's been on.
[17:12] Exactly. If you put in the work. That's it. That's it. We get to have people now. I don't know what I'm sorry to say. It was true. Mike, let's move away from the gloomy side to a bit brighter.
[17:25] When you started, you at a point, when you started, you were plucking in 7k a month. You let people come and build. But yeah, the reason for this question is that I want to know the project that drove that and basically how you go to that level.
[17:47] So that new enough and coming, especially your student, come play something. It's a lot of seeing, yes. And having the time to actually manage everything, if I'm being honest, there is the normal 9 to 5.
[18:01] 9 to 5, before you even get into socials, you need to understand that your 9 to 5 is your primary source of income. Don't joke with that. You get gigs that you need to structure around your 9 to 5.
[18:17] I was fortunate enough that I had people referring to me like they are referring other people to me now. It comes and then they are like, I'm full, can you take over this?
[18:26] But before even we get there, they had to trust me enough to know I'm going to do a good job. Because if someone refers you and you go and mess up, you're spoiling that person's reputation.
[18:36] So at the point that I was having the 7,000 CVS monthly, I was managing about two or three extra pages. And I was fortunate enough to actually have a client out of Ghana.
[18:53] And then thanks to a Kufado, the man was good. So that alone was also making out for maybe 40-30% of that. But I think what really made people refer gigs to me was when I was managing, I think, how do you call it?
[19:12] Homemade Africa. It's one of these private doctor brands and then private hospital, private health care brands as well. I like to test things out a bit.
[19:26] So I saw a video on TikTok. I was like, let me download this video and just upload it and see how it would work. I slept, I did it in a nice shelter and woke up and that was blown.
[19:40] Five million views. Like, wow, shit. That means you don't have to create content on your own. You can repurpose other people's content and credit them.
[19:50] And that alone can build you up. So, I mean, now people are making money off TikTok. Yeah. Just by we could you share there was a complaint about this.
[20:00] That there are pages on TikTok that are getting more views. Is that it? Here's official things. How is that possible? But you know, it's interesting that you need to test things out as well.
[20:11] If you do a good job with your fairs gig, most likely if you get very fair out, it's very high. So, after homemade gig, the international lady too, I tested that same out process.
[20:23] Another video. 1.2 million views. And you see, if that's science that's very good. Thank you. Exactly. There is like you said, there is a process in there.
[20:34] So, from there it was like, okay, this guy at least knows what he's doing. That's not to say the other content turns working. You are still working more but at least she saw what I was doing and knew I was helping her brand.
[20:47] And she figured that people test things out. I mean, it's also funny when I say this that we were a bit fortunate. If you started social media three or four years ago, you were fortunate in the sense that Instagram, LinkedIn, we're actually pushing out content and not thinking about the applications.
[21:06] So, I would say it was easy but it's relatively easier now to go viral then. If you are managing business pages and not dancing, that's something we'll discover later and not creating comic content.
[21:25] But then it's, I mean, it's the award. We are only living in it. So, that's it. How are we gonna do? Right now, where do you work now? Digits as we are go to my guitar.
[21:41] Ah, good. How is your your day-to-day life? A day in the life of Mike Bezra? Usually morning meetings, Monday, I think Thursday's, Friday's and Sunday's days to us.
[21:56] It's interesting working with people all over the brand. All over the world. Because Digits has quite people everywhere. This week, my boss is in Hong Kong.
[22:09] Next week, she's in Canada. She's in Australia. She's in New York. So, there is no particular structure in place. But first thing you have to do is always check your calendar.
[22:19] Definitely, yeah. Because maybe there are meetings that have been booked and messages that have been sent. So, usually that's how I start my day.
[22:26] Check my calendar. Do a bit of analytics to see what has worked and what hasn't worked as well. I've learned, bro, I'm sorry to say but we are joking in Ghana.
[22:37] Duking in Africa. Oh, lord. People think so different out there. I had to learn almost everything from scratch. What have you learned that has changed you?
[22:53] You know, for you to fit in your parent's role at Digitsen? First of, during the first couple of months, my boss told me, I rise like I'm a PRT.
[23:04] That's right. And you know, you know, guardians, Africans like a lot of streets. Please, respectful type of content. PR type of content, right?
[23:18] Out there, I'm sorry. People don't have time to do that, right? So, that's one of the first things that I had to work on. Changing how I write.
[23:26] I've been doing this for, well, four years and it has been working. You get put in your space and you are told, nah, I'm sorry. You need to start everything from scratch.
[23:36] I need to learn, I needed to learn how to rewrite, to know voice, captions. Even your email newsletter subjects have to change. Preview tags have to change.
[23:51] You need to learn to understand your new target audience. Bro, it's a lot of work. If I told you, I didn't feel enough to create in the beginning, I'll be like, because I was like, this is a new space.
[24:03] How, what is this? I've known this. And I think, What am I learning now? Exactly. How do I move on? But the thing to is, I'm actually really appreciative of my boss Moon.
[24:15] She's excellent at that. She understands that working with people, you need to give them time to adapt. And she's good at me instructions. This and this is what you are doing wrong.
[24:25] Move on from there. You need to also learn to understand that, Charlie, if you are working remotely, you will be serious. You will plan your day.
[24:34] Bro, and there is no nine to five. I'm sorry, it's 24 seven. Even as I was coming, I was literally literally chatting with her right now. So it's like, I've learned to adapt, learned new target audiences.
[24:47] My appreciation of systems actually came from working with. Did it sense? In the sense that we, in the last one year, we've changed target audiences like two.
[25:02] First target audience was normal businesses, SMEs, entrepreneurs, founders. But now we are writing to PE firms. Businesses, scaleups, and enterprises that are making like $10 million.
[25:14] They don't have time to read your content. And just even the types of your lead magnets have to be so specific. I'll be honest. Thank God for AI.
[25:28] Thank God for charge GPT. I'm a charge GPT addict. I don't like it. I have 110%. But yeah, it's been interesting. So day in the life, check calendar, have meetings, see what tasks I need to get done.
[25:45] Most likely than not. I'm always either testing out new content or seeing which type of newsletter topics I need to push out. It's a lot about like, how do you get thrown into learning about AI transformation?
[25:59] Digital transformation, scaleups, PE firms, outreaches, it's a lot. You need to learn and adapt. I mean, one thing I know about you guys, DigiSense, it's your podcast.
[26:13] I'm a huge audio fan. So yeah, I've subscribed to it. Followed it. Hoping that you put in another episode. So if you can tell me about it, just go to the new subscriber.
[26:27] I don't really talk good about it. But yeah, I understand the struggle because you have your main target audience to reach out for business assets and at the same time, you know, you need to push out great content.
[26:45] Sorry, go ahead. Even coming to the podcast. Bro, Moon came up with the idea that I think we should start with that. Wow, the integration. And I think you should be the host.
[26:57] I was like, these talking to people, like I said, talking to people that are making crazy money. Yeah. Looking to change the world with our products and and businesses.
[27:16] I still remember one guy that I looked so much to Jonathan Thai was I'd seen the good job was doing on LinkedIn and even with his brand. His company had won design awards, global design awards, five years in a room.
[27:33] And you are telling me, I go and tell each of you and talk to you. I was like, in the first or in the beginning, I was like, Moon, I can't do this.
[27:42] She was like, I don't have time to do it. So who else do you expect to do it? She gave me the chance to do it. And I've been grateful because I've learned from them.
[27:52] I've built some form of relationship with almost everybody that I've interviewed so far. I'm currently, Moon is taking over. I'm considering that Charlie, where the conversation is going.
[28:07] It's above. It's above my pay grade. And payroll, because now we are doing more AI transformation. And even though I understand and can communicate it, I'm not in the other in-depth understanding of that.
[28:22] So thank you for subscribing. It's interesting and scary talking to people that make good money and know what they are about. Just one of my first interviews was with Mars.
[28:39] Are you know Mars Chocolates? No. Oh, do you guys say Mars Chocolates? I'm a Mars Chocolates. Mars Chocolates. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. One of their global leads.
[28:51] He was one of the first people I interviewed. The guy was excellent, bro. Like there's someone who left that global position to start his own brand.
[29:00] Moved his family from US to London to Dubai. Or in chasing his dreams. Talking to people like there's a change in your mentality, changes your perception about life.
[29:11] We need to understand that, Charlie. You are doing enough but you're not doing enough. And on the internet, at any point in time, you need to follow.
[29:20] I like the way you said you was passion. Yeah. That helped you move from biology to marketing. I don't think anybody will believe you when you see this.
[29:28] Yeah, a lot of people don't believe you. Yes. Interviewing these people made me understand that there's a lot to be done. And Charlie, I'm sorry about it.
[29:38] I feel like in Africa, we are not leaving to our potential. I mean, I do understand there are constraints and all of that. Yeah. What type of people are doing crazy things, bro?
[29:47] Crazy, crazy things. We'll get there Mike. Oh bro, Charlie. We'll get there. The false data and attack. Yeah, we'll get there. This question I'm about to actually have even answered the top of this episode.
[30:01] You are now, you also organise classes for up-and-coming digital matters. What inspired you to do that? In the beginning of this year, I, considering the transition to digital science and the things I needed to learn, I didn't have enough time to take on extra gigs.
[30:23] So I hated the thought of people coming to me for social media management. And I'm like, you know what? I can't do it. Then I was like, why don't you just train people and refer them?
[30:32] That's all. So in as much as the money aspect was there because they pay for that class, what Charlie inspired me was like, Charlie, I can't do this money.
[30:43] These monies can't be going to anybody else like that. So why don't I just train a set of people and refer them to pick up their gigs. So far, like I said, we've had a community of about 200 or 250.
[30:58] I'm not entirely sure. There are people that were already doing social media, but weren't really in it and doing like... It's like they understand it, but not exactly.
[31:17] I'm happy to say that at least I know one lady, one of the first. So after every class, there is a page that you manage. That's pretty simple.
[31:27] Find out any more that you think you're interested in. Go to TikTok. Download videos from TikTok and manage the page. Post three times in a day because I want them to understand that.
[31:39] You can't just create a page and sleep. Thank you. One of the first batch of students, one lady started that. She went for, I think, Fox. I had no idea, bro.
[31:53] When I was introduced to this, so just to video for a bit, they actually got me as they're making crazy money on Spotify and Shopify. Shopify, yeah.
[32:02] You know what they do? They start animal pages and then sell products on Shopify pages. I started one myself with jellyfish, but I cashed out like $60, $70 within like two weeks.
[32:14] So what? I'm interested. I'm interested. So what kind of jellyfish? Is it like the product of jellyfish? So the jellyfish itself. You create a community of jellyfish lovers.
[32:28] Then you start selling jellyfish products. They are lumps made of jellyfish. Those type of things. They are MP3 players. They are hats. They are, it's plenty.
[32:39] Right. So that's how I started my page. I know one good friend that cashed out about $1,200 within a month. Not silly. Lawless. He didn't create his own content.
[32:51] He went to Instagram. He went to TikTok, Instagram, download the content, created a community and just pushed it out. Created a Shopify link.
[32:58] And that's it. So the whole idea of the first test after the class is to help people do that. This lady, I don't know who she will be at. Alberta started with that.
[33:10] She was one of my first students to hit about 10,000 followers in like a week. Like Jesus Christ. How are you doing this? How are you doing this?
[33:17] Challengable. And from here, we've had people start like hit consistently 10,000. Currently, I think I have about five or six students that are managing pages that are about 10,000 views.
[33:32] One lady that really inspired me. She started a page for cuts. 2000. She started posting. She noticed the content was in there. I was like, nah, fuck this.
[33:43] Excuse my language. And then she just, created the page and started the whole new page again. And now she's 14,000 followers. I was like, unless how did this happen?
[33:57] So that's one of the first some of the tasks to do. For the first lady to break that point, she broke 10,000 followers. She started posting it on her WhatsApp and IG stories.
[34:09] And one of her friends was like, you know what? I know a page of a brand that needs social media managers. Would you go for it? 3,000 CVs, first gig.
[34:18] That's great. And now she's actually creating good content and she's working from there. Yeah. After that, we've also had another guy. He also hit, I think currently about he's about 12,000.
[34:32] There are people consistently reaching out to them. So one of the things that I teach the first, one of the first things I let you know is the social media is not a street.
[34:42] It's always a street. You don't necessarily need to have clients to make money. I know people that are selling Instagram pages for 600, $700.
[34:51] They are making money from that. The Shopify is one way to avoid that. If you want to learn the strategies and apply it to your life, you have to influence our marketers now.
[34:59] So social media, social digital markets, it's not a street. There are so many ways. So it's an opportunity for us. Yeah, yeah. You can try the Spotify.
[35:10] I think I'll try this Shopify. Yeah, Shopify. Sorry, Shopify. The one where she says, what if I was like, I'm already in. Oh, Shopify. I keep missing that two runs.
[35:25] When I put out the call out, you emphatically said that you want to bust a myth. And it is, let me just be sure it is. Actually, you need a marketing.
[35:37] I mean, that's the myth. The myth is out there that you need a marketing degree to succeed. That is the myth out there. And I mean, I mean, it's a example that currently you don't actually need.
[35:51] You can actually do without it. Right. So how would you advise someone who doesn't have one but wants to start a journey in marketing? Yeah. And I can see just do it.
[36:05] Just that. Well, I mean, now I know better. I would say, previously, I used to be like, why are people paying for mentors? Why are people paying to be touched?
[36:18] This one, you can have everything online. But after I've touched people, what I know, and they've built systems or they have what I'm like. Yeah, I need to be.
[36:26] If I had, if I had just then, or if I knew someone who would take me through. I mean, I did have mentors. No, like, Sydney, Amma, Stella, Hetty, they were good.
[36:40] But yes, figure it out on your own. I want to do this. Do it. Nobody's stopping you. One of the best campaigns we've run at workspace, global I would say was e-translate, when e-translate came together in the first place.
[36:59] Now, I mean, it's called the entertainment content strategy. Yeah. Where you use entertainment and education together. This was three, four years ago and we tried that with e-translate and the results was 10 minutes.
[37:16] How did we get there? Test it out. You want to try it? How far is it? Now it's been adopted by most brands and now that's what we show me guys all over.
[37:26] But then just start bro. If you can take a course online, it doesn't have to be me. I don't mind. Go and take your course online. But at some point, you need to just start.
[37:39] You want to start social media pages. Talk to friends. Definitely within your second. There is someone who has a business that needs help with your social media.
[37:47] Yeah. Just add more great content for you for free. Then that's fine. Exactly. I volunteer and that's got to me here. So test it out bro. Just have fun with it.
[37:58] So for a hobby, that's self-taught. Marketers should adapt. Curiosity. It should be curious. Let me say this. Ability to say no. I'm pretty sure if this brand he has is the BTS.
[38:20] But there have been points in my life where I actually question what I know. Or because I couldn't say no. To the client. One even didn't even pay me for my last month working with her.
[38:36] And she got me questioning if I really know. But if I was any good money from other people. Yeah. So what's happening? One two was Charlie go to a point in time.
[38:46] I had panic attacks. Just seeing. Meeting in a way different. Seeing the core of the client. Then I'm full panic attack. Think one thing people need to know is I used to think let me just start from I used to think that no matter how much the money is.
[39:05] I never say no to that. But now learn how to say no. If there is a client that's stressing you learn how to say no. Be very curious. And analytics.
[39:18] We don't use analytics a lot in Africa. Or for most of the social media I myself I didn't use a lot of analytics until I started working with Digisense.
[39:28] I was like wow we actually missing out on a lot of information. So learn how to read and understand analytics. If it's been socials. Miss newsletters.
[39:42] It says you and everything. To learn how to say no. That's close to my heart. You don't need you need the money. But you don't always have to see yes to the money.
[39:53] If you and the funny thing is usually doing the discovery cause we are science. Charlie sometimes we need. You need a casual. Bro. Charlie sometimes you need the money.
[40:08] But if I had actually said no to these people I would have actually gotten the chance to work with much better people. And be okay with it. Because I mean bro there's something I haven't shared a lot.
[40:23] But after the lady said no doing that. I think somewhere in the last late last year Digisense but I nearly went through depression. Charlie. I went from and in.
[40:34] Like eight thousand two thousand six two thousand five hundred cities. For whatever reason. Everybody said Charlie. When you know that I can't do socials anymore.
[40:47] I know you are doing great work. The funny thing is two of them were very troublesome clients. If I had said no to them earlier. You would have had your peace of mind.
[40:58] Because imagine you're doing a month's work and the person is telling you. I'm not going to pay you. For reasons. I don't have money yet. What are you doing name?
[41:10] What's going on? It's still in to say no and be curious. Test things out. But I also like to share this that. Now if you are going to socials you are going to the get some okay you need to understand that people don't care about your products or services.
[41:28] I don't I don't need to know you. There is a whole debate online if. Work is actually the new influences of brands. Yeah. I'm always going to take Permacido as a perfect example.
[41:41] Permacido or Fita or two. If you check their contents anytime you talk about their products people don't care about that. Not telling you that.
[41:49] Now you need to entertain or introduce people like to connect with people behind brands. So if you are going to socials that's one of the maybe this might change.
[41:57] TikTok messed up everything for us. Yeah. I mean it's a great platform but it messed up everything for us. So if you are going to socials or you as an entrepreneur is a business when I know that I don't care about your products.
[42:10] I want to know who's behind the product. If you can come and dance and then I hear us have. Bro. The way the creates content. I said I'm like there's nowhere I can think of this.
[42:22] How is the hair seller getting his brothers to be shaking hair? And we are ordering. What the fuck is this? Sorry. What the hell is this? So it's interesting where socials has been to us wrong.
[42:35] Considering how we when we started the world has changed. Yeah. Then telling you post products boosts your sales and go now. You have to go through the four channels.
[42:48] Get people to like you follow you engage with us a lot. Yeah. So this is just a plea to business owners. Please we are doing the best we can.
[42:57] The pressure is crazy. The pressure is crazy. Why sales no come to me. I think the pressure is crazy because of the way we sell the sort of the prospects of social media to them.
[43:12] We oversell it too much. But me and you we know that it doesn't take overnight to accomplish something on social. That's true. Heck if you put up a new store it doesn't take that very day to get sales.
[43:28] It takes a while for people to get to know you. That's true. I think if you start talking that way to them that oh this is a great platform. But it's just like you opening a store in a new location to take a while.
[43:42] Yeah. You've invested 80,000 cents in a business. You want me to tell you if you wait three months before I get the first sales. True that. True that.
[43:50] So I mean I do understand where you're coming from and it's true. So that's another thing to always tell students to ask. Let people understand that there is a process.
[44:00] A process. Yeah. Brand awareness. Community building. Then sales. Even the sales crown. Maybe because the probability that you have competitors.
[44:16] It's a lot of dependant. It depends on your product. Is it? I mean is the market even ready for it? Bro it's crazy. So I mean I do appreciate.
[44:29] First of all let's not try to downplay what social media managers we are doing excellent job. But there is more to be done. There is more to learn.
[44:40] Like I said now currently I've seen this I've seen pages going in that direction of creating content that people want to see. Silverbed. I'm always entitled to them on Twitter because the guy is doing a good job.
[44:53] He's making it funny and engaging enough. Promised all years, feet out or two. I mean they are doing popping up. So I mean people are learning and I'm just worried that by the time we get to figure it out then another TikTok has come.
[45:11] Let's talk about this. Let's talk about your future prospects. What's up for you in 2025? Do you care to share if it's true to another cover?
[45:23] That's fine. I really don't mind. I think before we started this whole conversation we were talking about brand building and how I think at this point I need to start doing this.
[45:33] You've got to come out a lot. Be more out there and talk to people and just share basically what I've learned. I'm getting a lot of like I'm not even an exposure person.
[45:44] I'm realizing a lot of things that our counterparts out there are doing that we haven't even thought of of doing personally. One thing I always try to debunk are people asking that email email marketing is dead.
[46:05] I'm ducky. Do you know how much email is converted? Like how they apparently every dollar spent on email marketing generates about four times revenue from that and I don't think people don't read their emails in Africa.
[46:22] People actually do. The question is are you putting out content that they care about? If you're a branding agency I don't need to know that you can build.
[46:33] Your friend is saying a new social media page and give me nice. I guess maybe my problem is I need to learn how to do copywriting. What is copywriting?
[46:43] What is hashtag? What is hashtag? And how to use it. We need to figure out how to communicate and know what people want to learn and we would get them there.
[46:56] M. Notify has big apps too. M. Notify has been doing a great job as that. We also have M. Notify. We figured out SEO is one of the best ways paid ads.
[47:07] They have a variety of blogs. It's one of the best ways to go about that. But then we also figured out actually people need there are lots of things people don't know about businesses.
[47:17] Currently they hosted somewhere last they hosted a webinar about AI. And I was so inspired by the people that attended. It's almost like 170 people.
[47:28] Business is wanting to learn about AI. You need to find out what people care about. And it's so interesting that the people were asking that.
[47:37] Is this all? Let's have a second. So it's the hang guys that we just need to figure out how to draw it out. So big apps to all social media marketers out there.
[47:48] You guys are doing a good job actually with day back. Before I let you go, tell me that I think you've already mentioned one pretty little pretty little marketers.
[48:02] Pretty little marketers. That is a great blog. And that is the social media page. Oh, social media page. Like LinkedIn. She's a very I went out the first day I saw you should check it out.
[48:12] The first day I saw that I was like can't be possible. It's like the lady which later marketers that they do a lingo lady you know the hostel about the lingo.
[48:20] Yeah, she moving from zero to 60 million. Like that's crazy. But then yes, pretty little marketers. So that is one. And what else? What are the newsletter or would you like to recommend?
[48:33] I have what is always a great place to start. I would say sometimes some videos just pop up on TikTok. That's what about branding and understanding customers.
[48:45] Like I think that's where we need to start now as well. Before you do social. So before you do anything together. I'm getting need to understand psychology and how to sell.
[48:55] Yeah, we like to disassociate as me. I see it. Market says is here. Sales people out there. You know that job. But before you go into marketing now you need to understand the psychology of sales.
[49:15] You can't do that. So like I said, it's a great place to start. That's why I do. I do a lot of videos on YouTube to us. Or sometimes I just say what I need to learn.
[49:26] Figure it out and then move from there. So those are two places to start. There is those two. And for me, you can start with it for podcasts.
[49:37] That is one. And they can also come to your pages if they want to learn. But yeah, I would recommend that you join mics classes here. I'm going to put it in the show notes below so that you sign up.
[49:53] You can reach out to him on email or wherever but you want to reach out to so that you sign up to one of his classes for an avid coming digital marketers.
[50:01] Please do and subscribe to this podcast. It has been interesting. You've been interview killers as you giants and pop writers. That's been very interesting.
[50:11] That's what I do. Mike, this episode, just like any other episodes of the show, then you can appreciate it. I appreciate it. At Chabrom Man Studios, 13 Asiko Street, Tontra Hills Accra.