The Future of African Brands: How High-Quality Branding Enables African Businesses to Compete on the Global Stage with Sydney Scott Sam

[00:00:00] You're listening to the Unlocking Africa podcast.

[00:00:04] I have been an entrepreneur for 13 years.

[00:00:07] I started out in the arts and entertainment scene with a company called Moonlight Cafe.

[00:00:12] The assets are ever-evolving.

[00:00:14] The assets you would use in a specific market like in Nigeria

[00:00:18] would be different from the assets that you would use in South Africa.

[00:00:22] We're standing strong on the fact that we do transform people

[00:00:25] and transform brands to be able to get to that global stage.

[00:00:28] We also are looking to hire 25,000 African creators.

[00:00:32] We usually hire from Africa but we might open that up later down the line.

[00:00:35] But for now, we want to make sure that we're dealing with unemployment in Africa.

[00:00:40] Stay tuned as we bring you inspiring people who are unlocking Africa's economic potential.

[00:00:47] You're listening to the Unlocking Africa podcast with your host, Terser Adamu.

[00:00:55] Welcome to the Unlocking Africa podcast where we find inspirational people

[00:01:00] who are doing inspirational things to unlock Africa's economic potential.

[00:01:06] Today, we have a very special guest.

[00:01:08] We have Sydney Sam, who is the founder of Workspace Global,

[00:01:12] a company that believes every founder deserves to show up

[00:01:17] and compete fairly on the global stage.

[00:01:20] They achieve that by making creative teams accessible to startups.

[00:01:27] Welcome to the podcast, Sydney. How are you?

[00:01:30] Thanks so much, my brother. I'm very well.

[00:01:32] I've been looking forward to this podcast for some time

[00:01:35] and I'm doing it on a nice weather day, so I'm very excited to be here.

[00:01:39] In our previous conversation, I mentioned in terms of what you're doing

[00:01:43] and how much it's needed and offering something that's

[00:01:47] very different in the startup space, especially in terms of

[00:01:52] making it accessible for the African market.

[00:01:54] So yeah, I'm looking forward to today's conversation.

[00:01:57] Let's see where it takes us.

[00:01:59] Awesome.

[00:02:00] I know you've listened to the podcast before, but I'd like to start from the beginning.

[00:02:04] So if you could please introduce yourself and tell us a bit more about Sydney Sam.

[00:02:10] Okay. All right. So my name is Sydney Scott Sam.

[00:02:14] It is a very weird alliteration that I don't know why my parents decided to pick that.

[00:02:19] I'm a 31-year-old Ghanaian. I live in different parts of the world,

[00:02:24] but currently I'm based in London with my family.

[00:02:28] I have been an entrepreneur for 13 years.

[00:02:32] I've explored a few ventures.

[00:02:33] I've had my first share of wins and losses in that space.

[00:02:38] I started out in the arts and entertainment scene

[00:02:42] with a company called Moonlight Cafe.

[00:02:44] It did okay, but it tanked at some point.

[00:02:47] And that set me on the quest or inquiry for how branding influenced the success

[00:02:55] or failure of that business.

[00:02:56] And by pursuing that, I started to really learn about the plight of founders in Africa

[00:03:04] and founders around the world and some of the challenges that they face.

[00:03:07] But also as a creative in Africa, the challenges that they face of access to employment resources,

[00:03:15] et cetera, et cetera.

[00:03:16] I'm a father and husband.

[00:03:18] Been a husband for four years and I'm the father of a one-and-a-half-year-old.

[00:03:22] So yeah.

[00:03:23] Congratulations.

[00:03:24] Thanks so much.

[00:03:26] So you've given us a lovely concise overview of your personal and professional life.

[00:03:33] You've lived in different parts of the world,

[00:03:36] entrepreneur for 13 years, experienced your wins and losses.

[00:03:41] One of the losses is what has led you to what you're doing now.

[00:03:46] So I was wondering if we can home in on that.

[00:03:49] Was it that was specific about the loss that led to the inspiration behind Workspace Global?

[00:03:57] So that initial business called Moonlight Cafe,

[00:04:00] actually what it did was it picked underground artists and puts them on a stage.

[00:04:05] I started this in the university.

[00:04:06] So if you've ever heard the name Mr. Easy or Kitty, these are people who kind of started out

[00:04:12] on that stage and I would say was one of the early exposures to the industry.

[00:04:18] Now that business was primarily patronized by students at the time

[00:04:22] and the input cost for that business definitely could not be met by the student's pocket.

[00:04:28] So we definitely needed sponsorship support, brand partnerships, etc.

[00:04:32] But we only knew how to put the show together.

[00:04:35] We didn't know how to show up in sponsorship decks, creating a corporate brand.

[00:04:42] You're just navigating that whole space of how to ensure that you're attractive enough

[00:04:46] to larger organizations or to other people so you could build those partnerships.

[00:04:51] So we run out of cash over time because every time we would try to pitch,

[00:04:57] we weren't doing it the right way. We didn't have a website.

[00:05:00] There were things that people would ask us about that we just had not yet thought of.

[00:05:06] So when that business went down, I had personally taken it upon myself to

[00:05:11] try and understand the design element, the website element,

[00:05:15] just ask myself what are the questions or things that went wrong,

[00:05:18] what are the things that I could have done better?

[00:05:20] And I realized it's not just me.

[00:05:22] There are so many people who are doing interesting things, but really they only

[00:05:28] think about the operational element or the product element of what they're doing.

[00:05:32] And they don't think much about the brand element and the kind of marketing assets

[00:05:37] that they're using. And I realized they didn't even know where to start because

[00:05:41] for to get a high quality versions of that, you would have to go and pay an expensive agency

[00:05:47] or you may have to do well with freelancers which can tend to consistency reasons or management reasons.

[00:05:56] It just has a lot of friction if you don't have the right freelancers.

[00:06:00] So we realized there was a gap in the market, especially since a lot of people also didn't

[00:06:04] want to do it themselves because not everybody's born a designer.

[00:06:07] We realized there was a gap in the market for a high quality, readily available, very flexible

[00:06:14] support system for creative teams to start up. And that's where we made our mark and we decided

[00:06:22] to build a product to be able to plug that hole. Thank you for sharing that.

[00:06:25] So from your experience from the past venture and what you've learned during your time at

[00:06:30] Workspace Global, what do you believe specifically in terms of how does high quality branding

[00:06:39] and marketing allow businesses to compete fairly on the global stage, especially maybe if you're

[00:06:46] looking at it from the perspective of African businesses? Yes. So firstly, the world has

[00:06:52] been become heavily globalized. So even though you think you're competing on a local level,

[00:06:58] there are so many alternatives to whatever you're offering from people from other countries.

[00:07:05] There's always somebody who's able to do it cheaper than you at some point or will do it better

[00:07:09] than you in some way. So when you think about that, someone starting out of business just

[00:07:15] basically just has no idea of how much competition there is. And then when they're working with

[00:07:21] potential customers, especially because now people are working with customers even beyond

[00:07:25] borders because of how much digitalized the world has become, you have a very

[00:07:32] short window to make a good first impression. So immediately someone makes an introduction

[00:07:37] or you reach out to someone through marketing and social media, they immediately go and check

[00:07:42] out your social media profile, check out your LinkedIn profile, check out your website.

[00:07:46] If those things don't hit, that is it. They are not having a follow up conversation regarding

[00:07:51] that especially and I dare say this, Africa is on the rise in terms of the level of

[00:08:00] the world is beginning to trust the competence that we've always had for many years.

[00:08:04] But I do say we still have a bit of friction to be able to show that we can do things

[00:08:10] as well and or better than some of the people in other parts of the world. So there is a bit

[00:08:16] to prove and I'm not saying that we need the acceptance of external people just even within

[00:08:21] Africa as well. There are businesses that are always more keen to work with certain

[00:08:28] types of companies as compared to others. So that first impression is important. Also the way you

[00:08:35] price, if you don't show up well, usually are not able to properly display your value

[00:08:42] and therefore you have the short end of the stick when it comes to pricing negotiation.

[00:08:46] So we think it's also really important that people show up properly articulate the idea

[00:08:50] as well so that they can get the best deal out of the bargain especially for

[00:08:54] the first set of customers and then ask they build testimonials and credibility and track record.

[00:08:59] It gets easier over time. So that's my general perspective regarding that specific topic.

[00:09:04] So leading on from that, do you believe that I know this is a very general question,

[00:09:09] but do you believe that African businesses fully embrace and understand the importance

[00:09:15] of high quality branding and marketing? It is a sweeping statement I would say, but

[00:09:21] I would say across the world actually most businesses don't prioritize it until much later

[00:09:29] because of the way the startup world is right now and everybody's thinking about raising funding,

[00:09:34] etc. People are more focusing on building products or just building the idea and not

[00:09:40] necessarily how the idea is packaged. So it's usually the second or third thing that most

[00:09:45] people think about even though they do find that it's reasonably important. It's not the

[00:09:50] first thing that they think about. And then they have to kiss a few frogs, realise people reject

[00:09:56] them a number of times and then start to invest in that. So that's just a general trend that I'm

[00:10:01] seeing in the industry. During the conversation so far we've talked about branding and marketing

[00:10:07] in general terms. So maybe if you can break it down to us in terms of specifically what areas

[00:10:13] would you say are essential for startups or businesses to look at when it comes to

[00:10:20] branding and marketing? Okay, so the first thing I always kick off with, pulling from salmon

[00:10:26] and cynic is your why or your purpose statement. And that is basically the entire essence of your

[00:10:32] brand, right? Why are you doing this in the first place? Most people go straight into the

[00:10:38] what and then the how that they do it, but not necessarily the why. But one thing I would say is

[00:10:43] why is what connects you to your customers? What connects you to investors? What's connected to

[00:10:47] your staff and your partner? So that's the first thing to think about and use that why,

[00:10:51] that purpose statement to influence your value proposition, to influence your

[00:10:56] competitive advantage, all of that stuff. So that's the first thing. And the second thing

[00:11:00] is the messaging and the emotion that you're trying to create regarding that. So once you

[00:11:04] know your why, then it starts to align with what you're selling, how you're selling, who you're

[00:11:09] appealing to. Right? So that way you're able to articulate your value very quickly.

[00:11:14] Then it moves into the things that people experience, which has to do with the visuals,

[00:11:19] your color scheme, your logos, you know, the general identity of the business,

[00:11:24] what makes the business stand out. Then after that, you then move into your assets.

[00:11:30] So there is a bit of a difference between your brand identity and your brand assets,

[00:11:34] because your assets are ever evolving. The assets you would use in a specific market like in Nigeria

[00:11:40] would be different from the assets that you would use in South Africa. Right? So,

[00:11:44] you know, you have to then build those assets specific to the different kinds of

[00:11:48] markets and different kinds of products that you have. So that includes your websites,

[00:11:52] your social media posts, your ads, your sales decks, etc., etc. And then it goes on and

[00:11:57] on and on and on. But these are the key foundations that I would share.

[00:12:01] Great point. So yeah, I agree. Understanding your why is extremely important, which is

[00:12:08] I assume why over the past decade you've made substantial strides in the industry.

[00:12:13] So during that period, what would you say are the toughest challenges

[00:12:18] you faced in establishing and growing workspace global?

[00:12:23] Hmm. It's two ends of the same coin. The first thing is most people don't understand what we're

[00:12:31] doing or why we're doing it, and that has made adoption have a bit of friction. And then secondly,

[00:12:37] most people also assume that there are so many other people who are doing what we're doing,

[00:12:41] which has also made adoption quite difficult. So it does take a little bit of convincing

[00:12:46] for people to sign onto the platform. But when they do, they then understand

[00:12:51] what that is. And so we are at the forefront of a lot of education saying that, listen,

[00:12:56] there's a different way to do things. Most people want to stick with a traditional agency,

[00:13:01] even though they can't afford it. I mean, there are other solutions regarding that. So

[00:13:05] the first thing I would notice is that we supply creative teams, supervised creative

[00:13:11] teams on subscription. So just in case there's anyone who's listening to the call that goes

[00:13:15] like, what exactly does workspace do? It's a technology platform that allows you

[00:13:20] to sign on and instantly in the way that you get your Netflix, you're instantly connected to a

[00:13:25] supervised creative team with a project manager, and they can deliver whatever you need for you.

[00:13:31] And so we have endless requests, and we say revise until you're happy, right? So

[00:13:35] that's a beautiful thing. Now, there are a lot of other solutions out there like this,

[00:13:40] but then they are all coming from a price tag of about $2,000 a month, $5,000 a month,

[00:13:47] because they're dealing with different parts of the market. We are offering this service from

[00:13:51] about $200 a month. So every startup at least is able to make that budget to be able to embrace

[00:13:59] a service like this. Now, explaining this to people and letting them try it out, they then go,

[00:14:04] like, this is amazing. Like how has this not been there? Why are there not 10,000 people on

[00:14:09] this platform? We are getting, we're building our user base quite significantly. But yeah,

[00:14:15] so that's just generally the challenge that has been there. People confuse us and therefore

[00:14:19] assume a lot of things about the product. And then because there are a lot of other alternatives

[00:14:26] in terms of freelancers, DIY people like, oh, my cousin can do this. My auntie can do this for me.

[00:14:32] Everyone has an interesting reason for that. But you see, and then interesting thing about

[00:14:39] us is that the reason it's a subscription and we're focused on your brand and not just,

[00:14:44] even though we say all your creative tasks done for you, but we help you with your brand specifically

[00:14:49] is because your brand is never ending. Right? And most people think you can do a website and then

[00:14:54] you're done. No, in six months, you still need things, you still need to be putting out things,

[00:14:59] you still need to stay relevant to refresh. And based on the things that you are learning,

[00:15:03] you need to be creating more things. So it's really nice to have a subscription

[00:15:06] that you can just gives you the flexibility to do that. You can cancel at any time or pause at

[00:15:11] any time. So you always have that access to a ready creative team. All you need to do is probably

[00:15:17] hire a marketing manager if you want, or you the founder just works with us, but you never need

[00:15:21] to hire a designer, developer, a writer, social media manager, all that is covered for you under

[00:15:26] your subscription. It gives you a lot of potential and capacity at the click of a button.

[00:15:33] So that's just a general idea regarding that. Yeah, you mentioned something important there in terms of

[00:15:40] your brand is ever existing and I believe your brand is also ever evolving. You look at some of

[00:15:46] the biggest brands such as McDonald's logo has evolved. It's kept a fundamental imagery, but

[00:15:53] if you look at the old Coca Cola logos or the branding that's ever evolving. So as a brand,

[00:16:00] you always need to evolve with the times and keep on moving forward. So very important point

[00:16:07] and something else that you noted is that most people don't understand what you're doing and

[00:16:12] why you're doing it, which has been a challenge. So how have you overcome this specific challenge?

[00:16:18] So we're very small in lean team and currently we're still bootstrapping,

[00:16:24] which has had its advantages. We are considering fundraising at a specific point in time.

[00:16:30] But what we have told ourselves is that because we're a very lean technology team that is working

[00:16:36] at supporting 100,000 startups by 2030, which is a very ambitious goal. And we plan to do that

[00:16:43] without expanding the team aggressively. We also are looking to hire 25,000 African creators.

[00:16:51] We usually hire from Africa, but we might open that up later down the line. But for now,

[00:16:55] we want to make sure that we're dealing with unemployment in Africa. We say we're going to be

[00:17:00] the hardest working set of people. So what we are doing is we are giving away a free trial

[00:17:07] of one week where anybody who's interested in our service can come in and get a sales deck,

[00:17:13] a pitch deck or product deck for free, a 10 pager on us just so that people can immediately

[00:17:19] see the value, the way the platform works, the way the service works. And it does come

[00:17:24] at quite an intense cost to us. But the idea is that if we can get at least the next 1,000,

[00:17:29] 2,000 people trying out the value of the platform, we don't need to say too much.

[00:17:35] You've seen it. It's something that you need. You've seen the quality. You use this.

[00:17:39] Some of our pitch decks have raised tons of money for people. It's really changing

[00:17:43] the way people are working. So we have a very aggressive free trial and marketing plan.

[00:17:49] We have a very aggressive sales plan as well where, trust me, I introduce myself to about 75 people

[00:17:56] every day. There's a team that is really powering that to make sure that we're talking to as many

[00:18:01] people as possible. We're partnering with communities and ecosystems like this podcast.

[00:18:06] And we're also reaching out to accelerators and incubators around the world so that we can

[00:18:11] also sponsor their portfolio. So within the next one year, we believe that we should at

[00:18:16] least have gotten about an next 1,000 to 2,000 people to experience the platform

[00:18:20] and increase our user base quite aggressively. So as you mentioned, you're offering a free trial

[00:18:26] and you also noted earlier on that you offer your services for £200 a month subscription.

[00:18:32] So has this price been set specifically with the African customer in mind?

[00:18:39] It's actually this low because of the African customer, even though we do this mainly for

[00:18:46] global startups as well. So the African customer, unfortunately not everyone can afford it still

[00:18:53] because some people are pre-revenue and it's still quite difficult. But at least after your first

[00:19:00] two, three, 10 customers you should be able to put something together because in Ghana,

[00:19:07] where I'm from, this is about 2,700 cities or 2,800 cities a month, which is quite reasonable

[00:19:14] for a business that might be hiring four people or five people. So instead of the budgets you would

[00:19:20] use to hire one person, usually when you hire somebody, you're hiring around the price of 5,000

[00:19:25] cities or 6,000 cities either way. So it's cheaper than hiring somebody full-time and you get more

[00:19:30] value for that. So that's kind of the way we've positioned it so that it works well in Africa

[00:19:36] but also works well in the US or in the UK or just anywhere else around the world.

[00:19:42] So keeping with the theme of customers, which African markets would you say

[00:19:47] majority or most of your customers come from?

[00:19:50] It's not something I'm totally proud of but it's been primarily focused on Anglophone Africa.

[00:19:56] So Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, those are the main Uganda,

[00:20:05] those are where our customers usually come from. We do have outliers, so we have had customers

[00:20:11] from South Sudan, we've had customers from Senegal but we would like to push more into

[00:20:17] Francophone Africa as well and then we're also looking at North Africa. The North African

[00:20:22] market has been a little tough to break into but we believe that once things get going and we

[00:20:28] can start hiring more creatives from North Africa it should also push that along the

[00:20:35] line as it goes here.

[00:20:36] Fantastic. So are there any specific strategies that you've used to scale the business across such

[00:20:45] diverse markets? I know you said you don't have much presence in Francophone but you still have

[00:20:50] considerable presence in Anglophone Africa so are there any specific strategies that you've

[00:20:56] used to get into those markets?

[00:20:59] Yes, so primarily we do a lot of partnerships but the key thing is we shifted from being a founder

[00:21:07] led business to a founder led brand. So I have literally changed my management style and the

[00:21:13] company is very much led by the team so that's working very well but then in terms of our

[00:21:19] marketing a lot of the marketing follows my adventures around the world as well.

[00:21:23] So I go to these countries, you know I have speaking events, work with different companies.

[00:21:29] I train in a lot of incubators and accelerators. My fulfillment manager also runs like a little

[00:21:35] bit of an accelerator in we call it the brand accelerator in Ghana for African brands so

[00:21:41] we do a lot of impact work in terms of speaking training education and in turn

[00:21:48] when people learn about us and see the work that we're doing and like us they then it drives

[00:21:52] adoption in that market and sometimes we don't always go to these markets physically.

[00:21:57] We also you know do virtual engagement as well and that has tended to drive certain things.

[00:22:03] On the flip side also we do work with larger organizations under a different vertical of

[00:22:09] our brand which we call our premier studios so there are companies that would say hey guys

[00:22:14] can you send us a proposal? We've done this with Johnny Walker, we've done this with

[00:22:19] the UN with the World Bank. We build a website for the Ghana Stock Exchange so they are also large

[00:22:24] brands around the world who do notice our work and go like hey we want to tap into that you know

[00:22:30] and we prize them obviously much more than we would price a startup but it also allows us

[00:22:34] to enter those markets and then you interact with your staff, with your teams and they introduce

[00:22:39] us to people as well so yeah. You mentioned that you travel to many African markets too for

[00:22:46] partnerships and relationships so I'm assuming you see a lot of what's happening on the ground

[00:22:53] so how would you describe the current state of the creative industry in Africa?

[00:23:00] Oh okay so the creative industry in Africa is firstly it's very awake okay. I would say

[00:23:11] it's been awake for a long time but it's been dormant of knowing its potential right

[00:23:17] but the creative industry right now in Africa knows and understands its potential at least for

[00:23:22] some of the countries that I have been visiting like Jere Ghana, South Africa they're really

[00:23:30] embracing that they understand it and they're now pushing more for global distribution

[00:23:36] so it's entering a new era where African knows its worth and it's always known it but you know just

[00:23:44] stepping a little bit more into its role and then is also open to an equal footing and

[00:23:51] equal seat at the table regarding distribution and things like that so there's that. There's also a

[00:23:58] loop in terms of Africans or African diaspora giving back to setting up foundations for junior

[00:24:06] creatives in the industry to be able to accelerate so I've seen a lot of initiatives grants funding

[00:24:12] programs that are from the global perspective from the diaspora or from Africa that are also

[00:24:18] picking up you know new people new talent there as well so it's early days yet I know we

[00:24:24] still have quite a bit to go but the awareness is very strong the collaboration is very strong

[00:24:30] the belief system actually within the young people that I speak to also is very strong

[00:24:34] because generally these people are now fully considering the creative path as a formal professional

[00:24:41] career whereas most people used to think of it just as a side gig or a pastime or something

[00:24:47] that you know so that shift is definitely happening and I'm very excited about it.

[00:24:52] Yeah brilliant you said that the creative industry in Africa is awake and is now

[00:24:59] realizing its potential so what do you think needs to be addressed for creatives to fully

[00:25:06] realize their potential globally and across the continent? That's a very layered question

[00:25:14] I think a lot of people especially on social media are showing how far creatives can go

[00:25:21] even seeing stuff like the year of return and the diaspora you know just purchasing African art

[00:25:29] and you know putting just the placements of African culture in the media has also

[00:25:35] ensured that people are now fully inspired about how far things can go. I do want to say

[00:25:40] though that we need to really encourage a lot more of African for African patronage

[00:25:46] where there's just something about how comfortable we are to pay a certain price

[00:25:52] point for creativity from Africa right so I must say even with workspace it's almost a 50-50 split

[00:26:01] in terms of a lot of our clientele outside Africa and then you know some of our clientele

[00:26:06] within Africa. You'd find that to be very interesting because you would think Africa

[00:26:10] would be adopting our platform for 80% or 90% of it right so I really do want to encourage

[00:26:17] that if you are an entrepreneur, if you're a founder, if you're a corporate person

[00:26:20] listening to this podcast please take your time to invest and pay for creative services well

[00:26:28] appreciate them, refer them you know I know India has offered us a huge alternative to talent

[00:26:36] but again a lot of our resources are then leaving the continent right you know India, China,

[00:26:42] Taiwan there's a lot of countries that are offering services to Africa that a lot of Africans

[00:26:47] can now competently deliver and I would just encourage that switch to really really

[00:26:52] patronize that and I think you know once the economy is feeding itself generally we

[00:26:57] will see a lot more growth a lot more participation from young people just to be able to make

[00:27:02] ends meet and also just make your mark in the world so yeah. Very wise words so maybe if we

[00:27:08] look at it from a different perspective what do you say are the main obstacles that African

[00:27:15] creators face in gaining recognition or securing high-profile clients? I think one key gap that

[00:27:25] we started to tackle as workspace was just the fact that the business acumen of African

[00:27:31] creators was generally lacking right they're great creatives, they're great at their talents

[00:27:37] but then in terms of sales, in terms of customer service, in terms of project management, in terms

[00:27:42] of quality control these are things that you know if you haven't been trained obviously we don't

[00:27:46] expect people to waive a magic wand and then you just know all these things right but let's

[00:27:51] just say you were a writer and you just came out of the university no one has taught you how to

[00:27:57] write a proposal or write a pitch all you know how to do is write so I think there needs to be a

[00:28:03] major investment in equipping the African creative industry with business skills for us we are stepping

[00:28:09] in the gap and we're saying hey focus on your talent we will handle the business element for you

[00:28:16] but we still do train them on customer service we train them on project management you know

[00:28:21] so that way even beyond workspace because we do encourage them to take on projects outside us

[00:28:27] even though we do have a fairly large talent pool of a few hundreds of creators we encourage them

[00:28:33] to listen go out there be strong you know build your own businesses and things like that and

[00:28:38] these are the skills that you need so I think that's like the major gap they know and understand

[00:28:43] the creative or the creative talent but they lack the business acumen to translate that into

[00:28:50] high potential gigs consistent income and strong brands so if we look at it from the

[00:28:56] client's perspective what does workspace global do to help African brands to achieve

[00:29:04] international recognition through branding and marketing so from the client's perspective

[00:29:10] number one we we start off by there's actually an embedded coaching service in there where we

[00:29:17] will work with you to restructure your value proposition your go-to market just for you to

[00:29:22] be able to expand the potential of what you think your business can do so you get that as part of

[00:29:28] being of our service and you can also get assigned to a coach for an additional fee

[00:29:34] so it just immediately we should we help them structure you know the business model and

[00:29:39] their roadmap very clearly then there's the stuff that they do with their brand how to

[00:29:44] position it you know the quality of visuals that gets you noticed then we also advise on

[00:29:50] distribution in terms of where to place this so I personally come from a performance marketing

[00:29:55] and good marketing background so also we're educating our clients on how landing pages work how

[00:30:04] google and facebook ads and you know all the things that allow you to step onto the global

[00:30:10] front we then connect them also to other clients in our network you know so that they can let's just

[00:30:16] say there needs to be a recommendation or to expand on fulfillment for example let's say you

[00:30:22] want to go into the export space or you you want to you know cross-setting language barriers

[00:30:27] we do have some of these resources that we we're very intentional to connect people to

[00:30:32] so that they can go beyond just their their small local market and start to play in other

[00:30:38] areas so it's a really wholesome you know ecosystem once you subscribe on even though we primarily

[00:30:44] focus on delivering your work you do have access to that additional support to get you on the global

[00:30:49] stage would you say that your approach is unique to the nuances of different african markets and

[00:30:58] how african businesses operate it is and it isn't so because we're technology business

[00:31:06] the consulting element of it does have to be standardized a fair bit but we it's interesting

[00:31:13] we have we've struck the perfect balance between relationships and technology and automation

[00:31:18] and so there is a very hands-on approach in terms of building relationships speaking to you

[00:31:24] know especially challenging things like um the trauma of growing up with for example african

[00:31:30] parents you know and how that sometimes and i'm not saying this in general i'm just saying

[00:31:34] that in some specific cases we found that some founders have had very limiting beliefs you know

[00:31:39] because of their upbringing so we were able to speak to those issues and empower them in a way

[00:31:46] that they understand in terms of them building their brand but because we're also working we're

[00:31:51] trying to work with thousands and thousands of customers you know there is also a bit of a

[00:31:56] playbook that we have in the background you know to be able to help standardize that so

[00:32:01] i'm just saying i admit we can make it more nuanced but it is also quite well nuanced also to

[00:32:07] the different customers that come from our african countries brilliant brilliant so i mean

[00:32:13] obviously without giving that way too much information in terms of client names or

[00:32:20] anything confidential yeah are there any success stories or examples of how workspace global

[00:32:28] has helped a african brand expand their reach or redefine their identity through the branding

[00:32:36] and marketing work that you do yes yes yes i mean just earlier today i was working on

[00:32:41] our case studies and if you go onto my linkedin profile sydney scott sam you'll see that i posted

[00:32:47] a video of a brand called afrosox which was one of the very early starters of african

[00:32:54] designed um socks that are sold all over the world i think i think they are a six figure business now

[00:33:01] yes you know yes so i'm very very proud of them we we designed their sock collections we designed

[00:33:07] some of your ads there's this very ridiculous ad that we absolutely together yeah yeah of the

[00:33:14] coffin guys you know um that did over a million views on youtube you know so this is just some

[00:33:19] of the ways by which you know we've been able to support um quite a few a few of these businesses

[00:33:25] there are a lot of others that we can talk about um color markets um you know

[00:33:30] they just said some of them i've been beating me let me just open up our portfolio here but

[00:33:34] they're quite a brand jandell valeri losan who have really grown um to being really

[00:33:42] really cool brands impact hub for example the one in a car has become a very strong

[00:33:46] formidable brand that you know has invited investment from the netherlands like there's a

[00:33:51] lot of things that are happening because of the brand work that we've done with with some

[00:33:55] of these people so yeah we we we we were standing strong on the fact that we do transform people

[00:34:01] and transform brands to be able to to get to that that global stage yeah with the great

[00:34:06] work that you're doing you've managed to attract high profile clients i believe like

[00:34:12] the world bank so how did partnerships such as that come about to be honest those those

[00:34:19] partnerships generally happen through networking um yeah i think you know it's beat to beat enterprise

[00:34:26] method so it's like direct meetings direct introductions and uh we have the capacity

[00:34:31] to do that those products do take a lot of time yes and a lot of bandwidth and so

[00:34:37] for every large client that we service we probably cannot service maybe about 30 to 40

[00:34:44] smaller companies because of how intense it's very hands-on you're doing meetings every day

[00:34:50] like that kind of thing right so um it's been good it's obviously it's really opened us up

[00:34:54] to that and if we wanted to prioritize that a lot more i think we would do very well

[00:34:59] we do have our studio specifically for that so at any point in time that an

[00:35:03] large brand would come to us there are people ready to do that but they're not our priority

[00:35:08] that's just what i would say so yeah so just as we network um we have a very very strong track record

[00:35:14] over 300 startups and then also probably about 50 larger brands especially in Africa you know

[00:35:22] government institutions um c40 cities for example is one of the world's largest sustainability

[00:35:28] companies that has done we help them do a lot of their reporting in Africa the um there's just been

[00:35:34] a lot we have a very strong portfolio so it's not too difficult once someone gives us that introduction

[00:35:39] they see our profile they see the things that we've done and you know we're able to do the

[00:35:43] little and usually we're generally cheaper than companies that they go for in the u.s or in the

[00:35:48] uk um so that also is your advantage yeah as you said for every large company that you service

[00:35:57] you can't service some smaller clients you also mentioned that technology is a huge part of your

[00:36:03] business so how do you leverage technology to i guess enhance efficiency creativity and also

[00:36:11] deliver a top notch service right so think about this the standard agency can work with

[00:36:19] three to ten companies a month right workspace is poised to work with about a hundred to five

[00:36:25] hundred companies a month okay and we're trying to expand that somebody would ask how how exactly are

[00:36:31] you guys doing this how do you do this without reducing the quality how do you still deliver

[00:36:37] almost everything within a three day ten around right you know so there are certain ridiculous

[00:36:42] statistics that we have or we're working with that only technology allows us to do currently

[00:36:49] we're able to deliver every single project with an 83 success rate that the customer

[00:36:55] would also be happy with that within the first or second revision that is three percent success

[00:36:59] which is something that we're trying to get up to 90 um and then also we we're aiming to deliver

[00:37:05] everything including websites within the 24 hour turnaround which is something we're working

[00:37:09] towards in the in in a few years so just to give you the vision of what we're trying to do

[00:37:14] now i can't say too much because this is our bread and butter intelligence but yes there are

[00:37:20] sets an element of the creative process that people have assumed it's only human consulting

[00:37:28] that can plug those gaps so we have through that whole notion out of the window and said yes the

[00:37:35] fact that you know it takes human intervention to be able to deliver this element of the creative

[00:37:40] person doesn't mean it can't be automated and it can't be scaled the only thing is that

[00:37:46] it will take a ridiculously long time so for example creative direction or the briefing process right

[00:37:53] we we spent two years of r&d developing multiple use cases of how to predictably know what somebody

[00:38:01] in the banking industry who wants to start a fintech startup might want right so instead of us

[00:38:07] having to sit with that person for one and a half hours or two hours to understand their

[00:38:11] work or to wait one week for them to put the ideas on paper we are able to do that within seven

[00:38:17] minute experience using technology and research so these are just some examples that we of things

[00:38:22] that we've done along the creative process to rapidly accelerate and scale the way that we

[00:38:28] deliver some of these things and the evidence is there it has worked obviously we made a lot

[00:38:33] of mistakes in the beginning some people just absolutely hated it but now people understand

[00:38:37] okay if you're paying $200 for this and you're getting this level of quality of work fine let me

[00:38:42] just put some skin in the game and just work with a little bit of a technology experience for a few

[00:38:46] minutes which just makes my life easier you know one thing we realize is that our offices don't

[00:38:52] have to be open for people to work with us which is a huge advantage um you know a founder can

[00:38:57] literally be sitting in the bathroom or you know in a garden right and simply just you know

[00:39:03] filling forms or feeling you know doing a few things to give us feedback and they don't need to wait to

[00:39:08] speak to anybody to get certain things done so that's just generally how we're leveraging technology

[00:39:13] and that's on the customer side and also on the fulfillment side with our talent

[00:39:17] there are certain things that we've done in terms of our recruitment process our project

[00:39:21] management process and things like that that rapidly ensure that any young junior or mid-level

[00:39:27] creative talents who comes into our talent pool can be up skilled to a certain level very

[00:39:31] quickly and also deliver at our level of quality very quickly so these are just the

[00:39:36] ways that we're looking at this if you want to know more come and invest in our company

[00:39:41] brilliant we can we can share more about how we're doing we're doing some of these things so yeah

[00:39:47] fantastic i think i'll be in touch soon Sydney i love it

[00:39:54] so you've hit on some key points there i guess the use of technology in today's business

[00:40:00] world is essential it is here to stay it's no longer an emerging trend so i guess keeping on the theme

[00:40:07] of trends what emerging trends are you seeing in the marketing or branding space in Africa that

[00:40:15] you're currently excited about and you think people should pay close attention to um i think the

[00:40:22] africaness of marketing has a very large appeal right now yes um yeah so we don't need to shy away

[00:40:31] to try and make out your business look you know like it's from the west or you know you can

[00:40:37] literally just be an african business showing using african phrases african juggling african visuals

[00:40:43] and you know it will still be very well embraced you know so that's something that i've really

[00:40:48] enjoyed to see um what else i think especially with the rise of gen z and you know there's a lot

[00:40:56] of authenticity that is coming to branding where people are showing things that they care about

[00:41:02] politically things that um it doesn't there's a lot more authenticity you know in terms of what

[00:41:08] a founder believes or what a team a team believes that comes through their marketing that i feel like

[00:41:13] a few years ago it wouldn't have been very well received but in africa now you can literally just

[00:41:19] you know um show that there's a brand called um i think dips and chips uh they're not our brand

[00:41:25] but i think we we supported them with a little bit of coaching the beginning and um

[00:41:30] they they literally just talk about i don't always use the word gluttony but like basically

[00:41:35] like indulging yourself like you know just living the soft life and you know and they have a very

[00:41:41] interesting way and most people go like oh shouldn't you be portraying yourself as a healthy company and

[00:41:46] they are not trying to even though it's like african you know um fried yam and uh and chicken

[00:41:53] like it made and made in like african star spices right but they've positioned themselves

[00:41:57] as like an indulgence and i'm like it's so nice to see people being able to confidently do that

[00:42:03] in their marketing you know uh and still be very successful so yeah very excited about that

[00:42:09] thank you for sharing that so if we move from current trends look to the future future of africa

[00:42:16] where do you see african five years time in terms of how companies will be branded and marketed

[00:42:23] on the global stage oh there's an interesting thing that's happening in africa right now

[00:42:29] and that i i want us people to think about um a lot of african businesses are building for

[00:42:34] acquisition by companies outside africa yes and it's a good thing but it's also quite dangerous

[00:42:41] because in terms of control you know we may get to a point where in 10 20 years all the unicorns

[00:42:48] from africa would be controlled externally um and then once there's that level of control there's

[00:42:54] a different kind of appeal regarding what's the the rule of thumb is for marketing the rule of

[00:42:59] thumb is for branding and and we may have to operate on terms that are not entirely african right

[00:43:06] even though i do believe that the consumer market always has its way of being dominant but it's it

[00:43:12] just gets difficult so i think there's going to be a lot of positivity but a lot of things that

[00:43:19] also people need to be cautious of right african companies are going to get bigger and bigger

[00:43:23] and make so much more money and have much stronger brands um we can see even in our music

[00:43:28] industry the likes of benna boy and um terms you know those african products are now fully global

[00:43:35] products right and we can we've seen that the potential for them is huge but again the people

[00:43:41] who take in who are in charge of distribution are not necessarily all african you know like things

[00:43:46] like that so there's this two ends of that and it may influence you know how marketing and

[00:43:52] branding is going to be done but i would say the consumer market is very strong our gen z's

[00:43:57] especially what they did in kenya for example what they've done to like be able to really put a stake

[00:44:03] in the ground and force like leadership to do better and do right by these countries like i i do

[00:44:09] see that there's going to be a lot more confidence from the african consumer market to also you

[00:44:15] know just ask everyone to do right by them so it's it's going to be very interesting dynamic

[00:44:19] to see how that would play out so yeah i know it doesn't fully answer your question but these

[00:44:24] are just some of my shower thoughts you know that i'm putting on the ground so if we look closer to

[00:44:29] home where do you see yourself and workspace global in five years time what influence do you

[00:44:36] hope to have on african's branding marketing space um in five years time we're hoping to have

[00:44:44] supported about 10 000 businesses and we're hoping to just be similar to how

[00:44:52] you know people used to have to write letters to send to people in different countries and wait a

[00:44:58] week or two weeks or three weeks for reply and now you can send an email and that is done in two

[00:45:02] seconds we hope to have changed how much an african founder can dream and say hey i can come up

[00:45:10] with an idea today and next week i will have all my branding assets set up because and be ready

[00:45:16] to play ball right so um we will have become a force to recon with but not as a company but just

[00:45:22] more as an innovation like mobile money that just opens up the potential of what what the world and

[00:45:30] the african ecosystem can do um so yeah that's that's the way i see it would have made a cultural

[00:45:35] change would have really improved access to to a lot of things and we're hoping that also

[00:45:40] a lot of students and young people can now consider working with workspaces as an

[00:45:45] alternative career path um because you don't have to go into an office you work on your own hours

[00:45:50] you clock in the number of hours that you want to work you know there's a lot of flexibility

[00:45:54] there and that's the way i live that's why i'm able to live in so many different countries

[00:45:58] and i'd like to also open up that opportunity for our young people brilliant brilliant and i look

[00:46:03] forward to seeing that happen amen quote of the week as people we often have quotes mantras

[00:46:10] proverbs or affirmations that keep us going when times are challenging or when times are good do you

[00:46:15] have one that you can share with us today well one philosophy is that i i always view myself as a

[00:46:22] potential contributor to the problems in my life right no matter what they are and that allows

[00:46:27] me to take a sense of ownership of everything that's going on even if for example it's the

[00:46:32] weather i i do tell myself that i'm upset about the weather outside because i am upset about the

[00:46:37] weather i'm not necessarily because the weather has done anything and so that's just something that has

[00:46:42] has really helped me but then on the flip side also as much as everything matters nothing

[00:46:48] also really matters and that's something that also helps me that nobody really cares how much

[00:46:53] money i make or what i achieve like you know at the end of it you know we all we're all on

[00:46:57] this earth to serve a specific purpose i'm christian and so my thing is i'm i do everything for

[00:47:03] in service of god and so it's all okay you know generally how well you do or how well you don't

[00:47:08] do it's all fine as well so that kind of keeps me very well balanced and you know being very optimistic

[00:47:14] about my days so yeah so sydney is a man of accountability brilliant thank you yes wallow

[00:47:21] way to end today's conversation it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the podcast

[00:47:25] today sydney and hearing about your incredible journey and the value that you're adding

[00:47:30] within african's branding and marketing space i'm looking forward to seeing how things develop

[00:47:36] and progress for you and work space global in the near future thank you so so much this has been

[00:47:43] an honor and thanks for this having me on here thank you to everyone who has listened and

[00:47:49] stayed tuned to the podcast if you've enjoyed this episode please subscribe share or

[00:47:55] tell a friend about it you can also rate review us in apple podcast or wherever you

[00:48:00] download your podcast thank you and see you next week for the unlocking africa podcast