Konnected Minds Podcast

From selling over 800K on TikTok alone to building an international feminine hygiene brand that ships across continents, and why the brutal truth about starting a business with nothing is that you don't need perfection, you don't need a physical shop, you don't need everything figured out because the young woman who started selling on Snapchat with no business name and made over 20,000 cedis in the first 24 hours now runs a brand that doctors recommend to their patients, the childhood of being sent away at age two to live with family friends and aunties because her mother was too busy farming to raise six children creating a pattern where all the kids were scattered across different homes, the reality of growing up with different people getting different types of treatment and mistreatment that made her tough but also made her crave freedom so much she started living alone at 14 years old, the parents who are commercial farmers waking up at 4am every single day to go to their farms even in their old age refusing to rest and providing loans to people while educating all six children through university without anyone seeing them struggling, the hard work ethic learned from watching parents who never stopped even when they had the option to rest because their farming business gave them that choice, the university dream of becoming a journalist that shifted to construction after a conversation with a classmate whose uncle made a lot of money in the industry because she liked money and understood that money equals freedom, the childhood restrictions on money even though her parents were doing well because her mom would not let anyone have it easy creating a burning desire to make her own money so she could enjoy it her way, the business journey that started because she always wanted to be a business person and never wanted the 9 to 5 life of being controlled and dictated to even though she tried it and realized it wasn't for her, the first 24 hours of business that brought more than 100 orders just from posting on Snapchat and paying influencers proving that social selling works when you show up consistently, the 20,000 cedis or more made in the first 24 hours just from Snapchat with no WhatsApp, no Instagram, no TikTok because people trusted her so much they were paying upfront without asking for payment on delivery, the waiting a full year into the business before even starting to use Instagram or TikTok because Snapchat alone was generating that much demand, the supplier who got overwhelmed after just one day and said it was too stressful leaving the business hanging but proving the concept worked, the 800K milestone on TikTok that made people not believe her when she posted it but she didn't care because if you're going to be on the internet promoting your business you can't care about what people say, the wisdom that TikTok and social media work when you give value and show people how to use what you're selling instead of just posting products, the reality that she wasn't ready to see success in her first year but focused on making sure people trusted her by showing up more and being consistent, the international expansion shipping to the US, Canada, UK, Germany, and Nigeria because she focused her first year not on making money but on getting her products in the minds and on the lips of people, the thousands of orders and reviews flooding in proving she's fulfilling a purpose of educating women about feminine hygiene that Africans are never taught at home, the trip to China to create the packaging she envisioned because she couldn't get what she wanted in Ghana and wanted something that would entice eyes and not be thrown away, the refusal to compare herself to competitors opening big shops because her path is different and her business can do well without a shop if she shows up consistently and authentically.

Guest: Charity Boateng (Femlas Founder)

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From leaving home at 14 and never going back to building a business that gave her the voice nobody let her have growing up, and why the brutal truth about why some entrepreneurs push harder than others is that when you grow up without attention, without anyone listening to your problems, without parents telling you they're proud of you or that you're beautiful, the hunger to be seen and heard becomes the fuel that drives you to build something that forces the world to pay attention, the young girl who went to secondary school and never returned home because she craved freedom from a family that didn't know her well enough to understand who she really was, the mother who was against her moving to Accra because she thought it meant prostitution and doing men when the real issue was she never knew her daughter at all, the childhood of being scared of a very hard mother and having a soft father who wouldn't interfere creating a home where if you had a problem you kept it to yourself because there was nobody to talk to, the university years of packing her bags alone and traveling to campus by herself while watching other students arrive with parents and grandmothers and entire families when nobody came to visit her throughout her time there, the realization that the lack of attention from parents and the people she stayed with made her want to be alone but also created a deep desire to be seen and heard which became the foundation of her business, the pattern emerging across successful entrepreneurs where neglect and feeling like their opinion didn't matter in families created a drive to make money because money became the ultimate tool through which society respects people, the moving to Accra with no plan and a friend who never picked up the phone forcing her to stay with a total stranger for months while starting national service, the Apple shop job during service that turned toxic with men and women's stuff leading her to file for early completion after just seven months, the two years at home trying different things including working under someone in construction where she was waking up, going to work, spending 20 to 30 cedis daily on transportation and food without getting paid or learning anything, the day she cried at work and called her friend to say she was coming back home and never showed up to that job again, the guy from a previous workplace who came through for her during those two years at home but the relationship that was saving her eventually stopped saving her, the childhood trauma of carrying water on her head from age eight walking from 18 in Kumasi to Amakom market back and forth, selling food by the roadside, and going through so much that now when she's spending and overspending she tells herself leave it you've been through a lot, the pride of getting to where she is because nobody got her here except her and God when she never thought she would get to this point after doing so many things in pain and being neglected, the transformation from the child whose voice didn't matter to the woman the family now calls before making any decision because no decision goes through the family without passing through her first, the networking problem created by always keeping to herself and her two friends because growing up alone made her want to keep people out of her business even though she wants people to know her, the decision that if she becomes a parent she will show her kids how to love themselves, point to them, and make them her friend instead of making them afraid the way she was afraid of her mother.

Guest: Charity

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From defying her mother's wishes to leave university and pursue government work to building a thriving feminine hygiene business that ships to the US, Canada, UK, Germany, and Nigeria, and why the brutal truth about starting a business when you have nothing is that you don't need perfection, you don't need a physical shop, you don't need everything figured out because the young woman who started with no business name and bathed with AC water during her toughest days now runs an international brand that doctors recommend to their patients, the painful reality of being the child nobody listened to or understood growing up in a home where your voice didn't matter and being bullied without anyone sitting you down to hear your problems, the university years of feeling invisible and unheard that shaped a determination to create something meaningful on her own terms, the national service period searching for jobs that never came and the five to six years that could have been miserable if she had kept waiting for someone else to create opportunities for her, the moment after service when she moved in with friends and life got so tough they were bathing with water collected from the AC unit because they couldn't afford to fill their tanks in a house with illegal electrical connection, the realization that she hates discomfort so much it became the driving force that pushed her to build something of her own at her own pace, the mother who didn't want her working in shops or informal businesses because she wanted her daughter to wear suits and work the 9 to 5 government job that represented respectability when that path felt like suffocation, the father who understood and supported her vision even when her mother couldn't see it, the business that started without even a name because she was so focused on solving problems for women and creating freedom through feminine hygiene education that Africans are never taught at home, the first three weeks of selling 500 products and then hitting a wall where orders stopped coming but instead of quitting she sat down and asked how can I do this better, the decision to invest everything she made back into the business by reaching out to influencer Dorsey who charged 2,500 cedis for promotional posts, the 24 hours after Dorsey's first post that generated 25,000 cedis in sales proving the product and message resonated, the bold move of taking that same money and paying Dorsey for an entire month of promotion and then another month because she wasn't motivated by short term gains but by the vision of building an international brand, the thousands of sales that came through recommendations because she focused her first year not on making money but on getting her products in the minds and on the lips of people, the biggest problem being FDA approvals that prevent her from adding certain products even though pharmacies stock her items and doctors actively recommend patients come to her, the 2,000 orders in just three days during a sales period proving that online presence and trust can generate massive results without a physical shop, the reviews flooding in that make her so happy because she's fulfilling a purpose of educating women about feminine hygiene and seeing them get real results, the trip to China that finally allowed her to create the packaging she envisioned because she couldn't get what she wanted in Ghana and she wanted something that would entice eyes and not be thrown away when it arrived in people's homes, the wisdom that you don't need to get everything at once and she likes going through the process without rushing on anyone else's timeline, the refusal to compare herself to competitors opening big shops because her path is different and her business can do well without a shop if she shows up consistently and authentically.

Guest: Femlas Founder

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From defying her mother's wishes and moving to Accra alone with no clear plan to building a six-figure business in 24 hours using only Snapchat, and why the brutal truth about starting a business when you have nothing is that sometimes the desperation to not depend on anyone becomes the fuel that drives you to create something from absolutely nothing, the young woman who packed her bags and left Kumasi for Accra against everyone's advice except her father's because she knew her family didn't understand what she truly wanted and staying in Kumasi meant staying stuck, arriving in Accra with nowhere to go when her friend never picked up the phone forcing her to stay with a total stranger for months while starting her national service, the painful reality of going to university alone carrying your own bags while watching other students arrive with their entire families when no one came to visit you throughout your time there, the Apple shop job during national service that turned toxic with men and women's stuff forcing her to file for early completion after just seven months, the two years of staying home trying different things without passion or results while depending on a man from a previous workplace who was doing well and taking care of her, the relationship that was saving her but also suffocating her because being at home not doing anything and not making money meant having to depend on a man which made her deeply uncomfortable, the 10,000 cedis she managed to save from that relationship by giving the money to a friend to hold because she knew if she kept it herself she would spend it all, the random day she bought a feminine hygiene product from a lady online for way less than the 350 cedis she had paid before and forgot about it until a friend asked for something similar, the moment she realized she could make a business out of it and spent hours on the phone with her friend planning a dropshipping model where she would post products and forward orders to the supplier who would deliver directly to customers, posting the product on Snapchat the same afternoon she came up with the idea and immediately paying an influencer to promote it, the explosive response that brought more than 100 orders in the first 24 hours proving how desperately people needed that product, the supplier who got overwhelmed after just one day and said it was too stressful and she couldn't do it anymore leaving the business hanging, the realization that people trusted her so much they were paying upfront without asking for payment on delivery when she had just put a price there and customers were ready to pay just like that, making about 20,000 cedis or more in the first 24 hours just from Snapchat with no WhatsApp, no Instagram, no TikTok, just Snapchat and influencers she kept paying because the money was coming in and the orders kept flowing, waiting a full year into the business before even starting to use Instagram or TikTok because Snapchat alone was generating that much demand.

Guest: Femlas Founder

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From the dangerous mindset that marriage is just about finding the right person to the revolutionary truth that the quality of the players in marriage determines whether you see relationship as competition or collaboration, and why the brutal truth about why marriages collapse is that people bring residual effects from their upbringing into marriage without understanding that though you may look polished, educated, and talented, the effect of the environment that raised you is still there and just a little trigger will show where you came from, the young person raised in an environment where you fight for everything creating a competition mentality of survival of the fittest that no matter how refined you appear carries forward into adult relationships, the child who was shifted from one house to another or had wealthy parents who were sound and had everything but gave no time leaving a person devoid of love who had everything going for them but didn't have attention or affection, the partner coming into marriage struggling with trust issues asking can I trust what you are doing because the effect of where I'm coming from is tearing me apart and in my subconscious I'm hearing voices from the past, the realization that the quality of players in marriage is one thing but the pattern of play requires that you fish out your opponent and understand their pattern because no two marriages are the same and you may have a friend whose wife does certain things but you cannot expect your wife to be like that, the wisdom that you must sit down and talk about what are the possible things that can challenge the mindset of a person and bring them to see marriage as competition instead of collaboration, the understanding that when you sit down and truly understand each other that understanding will weave something that brings you to a place of knowing you are a team not competitors, the competition mindset that doesn't happen overnight and may not be resolved by yourself alone but you can get help, the agencies and people coming with competition wanting to prove who is on top which is all lack of knowledge and ignorance that should be sorted out before marriage, the critical truth that there are things that should be sorted out before marriage because if you wait those dysfunctional tendencies will be used as weapons against a fantastic marriage that could have been properly managed for the greatest result, the intense premarital exposure to knowledge and wisdom that digs out a lot about a person because you are not just the man that wears the shirt and trouser in front of me but a combination of a lot of things, the women who are a combination of a lot of things where so many have been broken before marriage and the competitive clamoring is not about competing against you but about the backlog of trauma that may not have been resolved, the women looking for the next victim to lash out on because they may have been violated, abused, molested, talked down to, or considered inconsequential, the beautiful glamorous woman where what you see may just be the container but you do not know the content, the process of knowing the content that takes time starting with meeting the person with the mindset of friendship, the opportunities to create trust that you are not coming as one of the bandwagons of people that abused her one way or the other which will go through rigorous testing where she will test you.

Guest: Mama Cathy

Host: Derrick Abaitey