As we’ve always done in this podcast, we’re always here to add more value for you. In this case, this only means bringing in fresh ideas and insights from online entrepreneurs who know what they’re exactly doing in their business. 

In this special bonus episode, we take you behind the scenes and get to know our new co-host, Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie. He co-hosted a number of our episodes while I was away. And today we feel it’s the right time to know more about Kwadwo. 

We discuss Kwadwo’s adventurous journey, including his experiences living in China, managing Facebook ads, and his passion for foreign languages. We dive into his valuable insights on scaling businesses, overcoming challenges, and finding motivation in the darkest of times. 

Take inspiration from Kwadwo’s unique perspectives and business acumen. You won’t want to miss this episode. Above all, as Kwadwo puts it, you’ll finally get up, stand on your feet, and take those strategic steps.

In this episode you’ll hear:

• Kwadwo’s experiences living in China and managing online businesses
• Insights on scaling businesses and finding motivation during challenging times
• Valuable lessons on effective Facebook ad strategies and targeting

Links & Resources:

• Rick’s website
• DM me on Instagram
• Full episodes of The Art of Online Business Podcast on YouTube

Kwadwo [QUĀY.jo] Sampany-Kessie’s Links:

• Visit Kwadwo’s website for Facebook Ads help
• Say hi to Kwadwo on Instagram
• Subscribe to Kwadwo’s YouTube channel to learn with him as he learns about personal finance, financial freedom, foreign languages and enjoying life!

Timestamps:

00:00 — Introduction
00:32 — New co-host Kwadwo joins the podcast.
03:54 — Why you should be excited for the new co-host
09:22 — Why Kwadwo is a perfect example of persistence
11:16 — Kwadwo’s language business story
16:12 — Ups and downs of a business
21:46 — Marketing gone wrong, but succeeded
25:37 — Managing Facebook ads
29:13 — Results of helping and coaching people
34:53 — The Ape in the spacesuit
38:59 — Kwadwo’s vision for the podcast
40:43 — Episode wrap-up

Please support the podcast by giving an honest Rating/Review for the show on iTunes!

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:00:00]:

You wasted twelve years of your life. Now you got nothing. And I’m literally, like, praying figure eight in the morning in my basement, usually crying, like, I want episodes to be motivational or to have a section that’s motivational to help the listener. You, if you’re listening, get up and stand on your feet and then be able to take those strategic steps that you already know to take because you’re well learned and you read books and you listen to podcasts like The Art of Online Business.

Rick Mulready [00:00:32]:

All right, welcome to a bonus episode here of the podcast Monday episode coming your way here today. Yes, we’re live back from Sabbatical. If you did not hear Friday’s episode, make sure that you listen to it because I share with you how many lessons, nine lessons that I learned during my four month Sabbatical. I’m getting a lot of questions from people of how I’m doing and everything, and I answer all that. I’m doing great, by the way, but I answer all those questions in that Friday in just a couple of days episode, couple of days ago episode, on Friday’s episode. And in that episode, huge announcement. I have added a co host to this podcast here. And in that episode, in Friday’s episode, I share with you why and how I got to that thinking and that sort of thing. And the co host is Quajo. Quajo, who has been doing episodes here on the podcast, kind of off and on throughout my Sabbatical, really well received episodes. The download numbers were really great during his episodes. And so Quajo is the new co host here of the art of online business. And so that is why I wanted to do this bonus episode with him where you get to know Quajo and what he’s going to be bringing here to the podcast. You’re going to hear what his background is and why he does what he does, a lot of business talk as far as what he’s been doing in terms of his business. And then also towards the end, we talk about more personal side. And I just wanted to do this because I think it’s really important that you learn a lot about Quajo as he becomes the co host of the podcast here. So without further ado, let’s go hang out with Quajo. So, Quajo, I just announced on Friday’s episode so today is a special bonus episode. I announced on Friday’s episode that you are the new co host of The Art of Online Business podcast. So officially, even though you’ve been doing episodes, you did a bunch of episodes for me while I was on Sabbatical, right? And this is our first episode together. So officially welcome to the art of online business.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:02:56]:

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I’m excited. It’s an honor to be the co host. And yeah, I’m appreciative.

Rick Mulready [00:03:04]:

So for everybody listening right now, you might hear my voice right now. It’s a little raspy. So this is the second day that I’m back from Sabbatical, and yesterday was the day that I recorded the episode that just came out on Friday, sharing the lessons that I learned. And it was longer than I expected, and I finished that episode in the afternoon. I almost lost my voice completely because it wasn’t used to talking so much in continuous fashion. So I’m not drinking coffee right now. I’m drinking green tea with some lemon and honey.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:03:42]:

Shouldn’t chamomile tea work better for that?

Rick Mulready [00:03:45]:

Are you trying to put me to sleep? I want to fall asleep here on the podcast.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:03:50]:

It’s okay. You have that late night DJ voice.

Rick Mulready [00:03:54]:

I do, which I kind of like personally. But yeah, I’m really excited to have you as a co host here on the show. And as I mentioned in Friday’s episode, you did a bunch of episodes for the podcast in August, and the download numbers were really high. So people listening right now really want to hear what you have to say. And so what I thought I’d do in this bonus episode is a little bit about get to know yeah, a little about behind the scenes of who Quajo is. And I just want to tell a quick story, and then I’ll turn it over to you. So, first of all, before I tell that story on Friday, I gave a quick, high level overview of what you do. So why don’t we start there, and then I’ll go back to the story in just a second. So what is it that you do? What do you specialize in?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:04:52]:

Well, I specialize in managing Facebook ads for the same established online course creator and online coach audience that the art of online business serves. So ideally, that’s someone who wants to scale up from, let’s say, $150,000 annual gross revenue, up to, like, $900,000 gross annual revenue, and I serve why not a million? Why not a million?

Rick Mulready [00:05:18]:

Yeah.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:05:19]:

Because when I say a million one, I feel like we’re kind of numb to those round numbers. And so 900,000 sticks in their head, kind of like you just asked me, well, why not a million? And also, quite frankly, the clients that I have been able to serve the best really do fit into that range that I’ve just expressed with you. So them with ads and then also with funnel fixing, which is just well, once the leads come in, how do you convert those leads at a higher rate, to use very cold terminology. But how do you end up taking that gift that you have or that they have and serving more people with it? That’s what I help with, funnel fixing and then Facebook ads management.

Rick Mulready [00:06:00]:

And you’re also a coach, and I think that goes into the funnel fixing, right? Because what’s unique about your ads management services is that you’re not just running ads, but you also have a deep knowledge of funnels and okay, if the overall funnel is not working, it’s something I’ve talked about on the podcast for years now. It’s a case of, all right, let’s break it down piece by piece rather than looking at it overall and say, oh, I don’t know what’s going on because it’s too big. Whereas a lot of ad managers are just looking at the ads themselves and maybe over to the landing page, you’re able to look at that piece all the way through to the end of the funnel and say, oh, our ads are working, but X, Y, and Z in the funnel is not. Is that correct?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:06:49]:

It is correct. I have you to thank for all of that. I mean, I’ve been coaching with you inside of the accelerator for so long now, and you taught me everything I know, minus a few books that I read. But, I mean, we’ve had so many sessions where you have been watching my coaching sessions and giving me feedback because I was working with your clients, and I love it, and, yeah, I’ve learned a lot.

Rick Mulready [00:07:15]:

And in addition to the ads management, for people who are not quite ready for ads management, you’re also doing coaching. Correct. You’re doing ads and funnel coaching.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:07:25]:

That doubles as the funnel fixing. That is what the funnel fixing is. Yeah. So it’s like a short strategy call. If somebody’s not ready to do ads, then they hop on the call with me. And, geez, that has looked like me setting up someone’s ad campaign, because I do that all the time, like, right there on Zoom for them. Or we get tons of questions, some of which will be in the upcoming episode, the top Ten Facebook ads questions that I’ve gotten over this past summer. But, yeah, I hope I’m right there on a funnel fixing strategy call.

Rick Mulready [00:07:58]:

Do you want to announce one of the new series that you’re going to start doing on the podcast here? Mixing in on the Fridays. So, as all of you know, I do quick Tip Fridays, and they have gotten longer than originally planned. I’m getting them back down. But Quage and I did a lot of talking about starting to mix in some other episodes. You want to share what those are going to be?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:08:23]:

Now I have to make a teaser, a movie trailer.

Rick Mulready [00:08:26]:

Now you have my voice commit to it.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:08:28]:

If you’re watching it, I’m getting close to the mic in a world where online business that’s right, funnel Fixing Fridays or Funnel Fix Fridays.

Rick Mulready [00:08:39]:

Funnel fix fridays.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:08:40]:

Funnel fix fridays. And what’s going to happen is I will let you, listener, submit a funnel. You have to apply. But I’ll be reviewing funnels. I’ll be reacting to funnels reviewing funnels, doing the exact same thing that I would do on a discovery call, seeing what’s working, seeing what I would change, giving you three or four easily applicable tips and changes that you can make to your funnel. Right away, but then also touching on what I would do long term to make that funnel work better. Funnel fix fridays.

Rick Mulready [00:09:14]:

Nice. So I’ll be mixing those in on the Friday episodes. I’m really excited about those.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:09:18]:

Yeah, me too.

Rick Mulready [00:09:22]:

I used to use you as an example of when people were applying for accelerator and they would learn what time the coaching calls were. And they used to be at noon Pacific on, I believe it was Mondays. And they would say, oh, that times I’m in another country, or what have you. The time zone doesn’t quite work for you. And especially with Australia, I used to get that a lot from even though we had Australian people from Australia and New Zealand in accelerator, that was a big, I will call it and excuse that people would use. And so I just look at that as if you want something bad enough, you’re going to do whatever it takes to do it. And I would use you as an example because when you started an accelerator, however many years ago that was, you were in China.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:10:22]:

Yep.

Rick Mulready [00:10:22]:

And so I don’t know what the time difference was, but I remember you being on our calls and it was like three in the morning and you were sitting at the table, it was pitch black behind you, and sometimes at that point, baby was off to the side. Oh, yeah, that’s right, I remember. Yeah. And so here it is, three in the morning, like the next day, I think it was, and you’re on the calls and you were getting valuable advice and all this other stuff. And so I love sharing that story, because when you want something bad enough, you’re going to do what it takes to make it happen. And here you are in China, getting up at three in the morning once a week to do these calls with us and getting the benefits from it that way. What were you doing in China?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:11:16]:

So I was an international school, English as a second language teacher, doing that well, and then read one of these articles and decided, I’m going to just jump ship and start my own business. Right. Teaching Chinese to expats, which is just a fancy word for immigrants to China, and I just wanted it to be successful. And I don’t remember how I must have heard you somewhere in the podcast lands. And up till then, I think I had been growing my business, or trying to grow it for about a year, and I had the equivalent of a Facebook group, but on Chinese software. And I was just teaching my heart out because I really in my heart is languages. I love communicating in foreign languages. And so it was going what I thought, well, but before I say what you changed, I’ll just say that, yeah, absolutely. I got up at 02:00 A.m., and then I think it was either two or 03:00 A.m.. And who was in the living room? It was my son, and he must have been, like, five months old. And so I’m trying to participate in the zoom calls and not wake. I think actually a couple of times he woke up, so I had to grab him and rock him back to sleep.

Rick Mulready [00:12:36]:

The other thing, too, though, is people would say, oh, I can’t make the live events because I’m XYZ. Well, I think we had a live event, a retreat coming up in, like, a matter of weeks. When you joined and you were there. You were here in San Diego, you flew over to San Diego, and it was at that point that we as a group determined how much you were actually making per hour based on the amount of work that you were doing. And what was it? It was like, less than a dollar.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:13:10]:

I think it was like $0.77. So the hot seats were amazing. I mean, obviously, I personally know after being an accelerator, how good it is, but you just really can’t understand how much value there is until you’re on those calls, until you’re in person. And so after the first time, it was in faith, right? But then after that, I was like, for sure. I’m getting up. I don’t care. I will be there. And yeah, I was super scared, and you put me in a hot seat, and I remember writing my questions on that. What was it? Like an easel with the flip paper in an airbnb? And I’m like, oh, Lord, what are they going to tell me? And right there, you and some of the other participants calculated my hourly rate, $0.77 an hour. And I think you ended up saying, So wait, Quaido, you can be like my human dictionary, and I can message you anytime throughout the day, and I only have to pay, like, $0.77 an hour. And I was like, Head low because I’m in a room with yeah.

Rick Mulready [00:14:12]:

You’re like, well, if you put it like that, well, that is reality, right?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:14:18]:

But I mean, I didn’t fly across the Pacific Ocean to be sugar. Like, I was there to grow. That was the point. And grow I did, because the next strategies that you guys just told me to do, I was scared, but I remember doing it right there. You’re like, launch group coaching program. Now, you cannot leave this two day retreat until you do it. You did. I did it.

Rick Mulready [00:14:42]:

So the business started to grow a bit, but then other things started to happen.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:14:47]:

It growed a lot. It grew a lot. A huge amount, yeah. So it was growing a lot. I was booking stages, speaking at events, went on an influencer trip. That was nice. My wife did not like that, though. Random story, though. I did get to go on an influencer trip to the Hawaii of China, a place called Sanya in the south. And one of my students in the new group coaching program that I launched when I was in the Accelerator. Her name dang it now, it completely left my mind. Anyway, one of the students is Brazilian, and she’s an actress in China, right? And so I’m doing the right thing. I’m telling my wife what’s going on down there, which is just us going around to places. But she’s in the north of China, cold, because it’s, like, November now after, like, left the first retreat in the summer. And so it turns out that this lady had joined my Chinese coaching program. Loved it. Then she was on the same influencer trip. And you know what she did in 2020? She became Miss World. As in she almost won. No. Sorry, Miss Universe. Brazil. As in she almost won miss Universe. A lady from Mexico beat her out.

Rick Mulready [00:16:11]:

Oh, wow.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:16:12]:

Yeah, right. So that’s a random story. I’m growing the business at this point. Like, the group coaching program that you guys forced me to launch thank God you did was growing. I think I did four cohorts then it was like, 700, $800 program for six weeks, this kind of deal. And then on January 13, 2020, I will never forget that day because it was the last day I ever lived in China. But we took a vacation to Mexico, and, like, everyone knows, the pandemic broke out a couple weeks later, or maybe it was earlier, but the world found out a couple weeks later, and that absolutely let’s just say it destroyed my life. I mean, my life is good now, but at that point in time, we heard the news. We were happy to quarantine in Mexico because, like, quesadillas and tacos, and nobody really understood what was going on at that point in time. But what we did know was that our friends in China, no matter what you believe about quarantine, they were doing quarantine. Like, one person per family could leave their household every week, and people’s doors were being taped from the outside to be monitors. There’s, like, gates everywhere. So we didn’t want to go back. We kept quarantining. Then we found out in April that China was shutting down the borders, and we were like, we’ll just wait it out. Well, they didn’t open up the borders until this year, 2023 in January. And so what happened was that I had to shutter my business because you have to be in China in order to renew all your business paperwork, so I had to shutter it. That sucked. And then it came time to renew rent for our place. It’s like this four bedroom, nice spot in China. We also weren’t there to sign all the paperwork to renew for another year or two. And at this point, it’s like August, and we have no idea when we can get back into China. Plus.

Rick Mulready [00:18:24]:

This is August 2020.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:18:26]:

August 2020. I’ve already been paying rent and not living there, but so I’ve been paying an airbnb in Mexico since January, rent for my business office in China since January, rent for our apartment in China since January, and we decided to sell just to get rid of everything. So thank God we had friends who went over there. But if you guys are watching, go to the website, theartofonlinebusiness.com or the YouTube channel under the same name, and look what I’m holding up. It’s my phone. So imagine having to go through your four bedroom house of, like, five years, looking through your iPhone on FaceTime while your friends are on the other end, and they’re pointing through this little screen at things, and you’re trying to figure out what you do and you don’t want. But you left your house in a bit of disarray, and you kind of don’t even remember what you really have because you never thought that you would never see it again. So we got, I think, out of our whole place, six luggages out of our house, and we didn’t even see those six luggages for another year. And so the context is we left for vacation with two kids, nine month old and a four year old ish and one check in luggage and a couple of carry ons, and that’s the last time I’ve seen.

Rick Mulready [00:19:51]:

And so it’s like the longest permanent vacation sort of thing.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:19:56]:

Yeah, you’re telling me. I mean, I love it here in Mexico now.

Rick Mulready [00:19:59]:

You’re still in Mexico?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:20:00]:

I’m still in Mexico. Central Mexico, it looks like. It’s not the beach and palm trees that people think when I say Mexico, it’s high and dry, like Phoenix, Arizona.

Rick Mulready [00:20:11]:

It’s like desert and scorpions and snakes.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:20:14]:

Yes. And cacti everywhere.

Rick Mulready [00:20:17]:

No, thank you on the snakes.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:20:19]:

No thank you on the snakes. But I love it here. So yeah, Rick, that was my 2020. And when I mean, like, destroyed, it was like at that point, I was 40, and everything that I had been building in China for twelve years, I lived over there. I had no plans of leaving. Just came to a screeching hall. It was like I just walked into the Great Wall of China and fell over and cried a lot. And so that’s kind of when we started our business relationship, right?

Rick Mulready [00:20:49]:

Yeah. Wait, you’re 43 right now?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:20:53]:

I’m 42 right now, so I must have been 39.

Rick Mulready [00:20:56]:

I don’t think I knew that. You look like you’re 27.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:20:59]:

You know what they say, black don’t crack. Thank you for the melanin.

Rick Mulready [00:21:05]:

Yeah. And when you were going through that, I remember you saying, well, we’re going to try to get back at this time and try to go back at this time. And it kept getting pushed back and pushed back in 2020. And so I brought you on into my business to do some marketing. You were interested in ads because you had been running ads, if I’m not mistaken, back then, from time to time, not for any other clients or anything like that, but for yourself. So you had a base knowledge. At what point did you take a greater interest I don’t recall. At what point did you take a greater interest in Facebook and Instagram ads.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:21:46]:

After meeting you and doing marketing for you? So, yes, I did have an interest already because I did it for myself, but I did it the wrong way. Back in 2018 and 2019, I did it the wrong way. And so I was like plenty of businesses who had a big social media following. In fact, to this day, when I get on discovery calls to manage people’s Facebook ads or fix their funnels, the ones that decided to stalk me around the Internet, they’re like, what do you actually do and why do you teach Chinese right now? Because the social media presence is still strong, and that’s all people can find when they Google me is me speaking Chinese. But I did that for myself. I ran ads, and I was really good at Instagram back in the day, and YouTube and YouTube, right. 20,000 subscribers on YouTube and 27,000 followers at the peak on Instagram. It was fun. So then working with you, though, I realized this is how we really do ads. And I had learned a bit more since I was in the accelerator previous to that. But yeah, you helped me really get my feet wet as far as doing Facebook ads the right way. And you really know how to think about Facebook ads, and I still hear people saying that Rick really taught me how to think and look at it strategically.

Rick Mulready [00:23:10]:

Well, I mean, thank you for saying that. I think a lot of people look at it like, oh, I just need to do X, Y, and Z so that I can accomplish A, if you will. And that’s all well and good, but you do need a bigger picture to be thinking about ads when it comes to running ads and why you’re running them, et cetera, et cetera. So after a while, you became an ads coach and a business coach and funnels coach inside of accelerator. You also started working for another ads manager as part of their team. What were some of the big things that you learned through that experience?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:23:59]:

The systems, just how ads seem like a mystery. It’s hard to you know, they talk about the curse of expertise, where after you’ve just been in the thick of something, you just can’t see it like a beginner would see it.

Rick Mulready [00:24:14]:

Right, right.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:24:16]:

But I remember starting in that ads agency and realizing, first, how little I knew. Second, oh my gosh, such a wide variety of different clients and different online business niches that were crushing it with their ads. And then third, the systematic approach to just testing Facebook ads like a machine and sticking to the data and scrapping what doesn’t work, coming out. Know new components for ads and testing and testing and testing and testing. I thought I had an idea, but I really didn’t until I started working.

Rick Mulready [00:24:53]:

At that Facebook ads agency and learning the systems. And it’s not like it’s like, okay, I’m going to start an ad campaign, and I’m just going to start throwing stuff up. Like there’s a system to it and how we’re going to test and do audience research, et cetera, et cetera.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:25:13]:

There’s very little guesswork, but that makes perfect sense because when somebody is trusting you with an ad budget, those are their hard earned dollars. So it’s like, you better not be guessing. You got to know what you’re doing.

Rick Mulready [00:25:25]:

Yeah, so talk about that for a second, because that’s a really interesting point, because most people think when they’re running ads or thinking about ads, it is guesswork, but you just said it’s not guesswork. Tell us more about that.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:25:37]:

Well, it’s not, so let me pull back the curtain and show you why it’s not. So. Somebody decides to work with me and have me manage their Facebook ads, the first thing I’m doing is giving them a super long questionnaire. Sorry if you don’t like questionnaires and you’re thinking about this, but we have to research the audience because if we’re targeting, we need to make sure. And I get this question all the time, like, how do I know my ads are targeting the right people? Well, we have to do the research, and that takes a bit of time. Then the next thing we’re doing is we’re coming up with And Copy, which is not just us, like using AI with a simple three line prompt and getting ad copy. Like we’re diving into let’s call it the customer avatar that we’ve compiled from the questionnaire and then done research on them around the Internet and pulling together ad copy, writing it, submitting it to the client. And then when you launch the ads, it’s like, no, you start with five or six graphics. You start with three pieces of good, well researched ad copy and headlines. And then you start testing all those combinations systematically, same time, every time inside of an audience. And once you get to a good cost per lead, then it’s time to test different audiences. It’s very methodical, very little guesswork if.

Rick Mulready [00:27:01]:

Anybody listening is working with an ads manager or thinking about working with an Ads manager, and they don’t have you fill out at least a decently long questionnaire. That’s a red flag. That’s a red flag. If people want to work I just throw this in there. If people want a shameless plug, if people want to work with you or get on a call with you, what can they do right now?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:27:23]:

They can go to Quajo.com and book a call that’s quayjo.com. Go there, read up, book a call. The link is in the show notes below.

Rick Mulready [00:27:37]:

And what else should people know about you coming on to the podcast as I talked about on Friday’s episode when I introduced the fact that you’re going to be the new co host here. I think that you really bring a diverse voice to the conversation in that you’re working with clients like you’ve been talking about on a daily basis. And I am, yes, but in a different way. You’re in the back end of their marketing and their funnels and their ads. So you get to see literally what’s working and what’s not working. To your point that you just mentioned, it’s very methodical. So you’re getting to see, oh, this worked well, this didn’t work well. Why do we test this sort of thing? They experienced this sort of reduction, whatever. You’re seeing that on a daily basis and you can really bring that to these types of conversations.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:28:34]:

Absolutely.

Rick Mulready [00:28:36]:

I think that’s one thing I’m really excited about and everybody listening here, I hope that you’re excited as well. What haven’t we talked about that you want to make sure that people know about you coming onto the show?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:28:51]:

Mean, I guess we’ve talked about expertise and it’s kind of hard to even keep talking about that. I’ve started working with you, it’s been a number of years in accelerator and I’m ever grateful for the experience. I mean, you’re the Rick Mulready. Like when I drop your name, people know who you are.

Rick Mulready [00:29:10]:

It is just another dude.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:29:13]:

It’s true. But I mean, from coaching clients for the years, from being in literally being and seeing the back end of their business, to crunching the numbers, to I mean, we’ve seen people just share their hearts out, right? Yeah. Inside of accelerator as we’re touching upon things, because you’re not just about building some or increasing somebody’s profitability. That third thing. Increasing their impact, reducing their hustle, increasing their profit and increasing their impact. And when you start talking about impact, I would say I’ve been blessed to see so much of the kind of impact that people really are doing with their businesses across so many different niches. So professionally, I’ve been running my own business, managing Facebook ads and fixing funnels now for coming up on a year anniversary. Right. And about me personally, I live in Mexico and I love learning foreign languages. I got two kids, they just went back to school. One is going into second grade, the other is in the second year of kindergarten. They got three years of kindergarten here in Mexico, which is like if you’re listening from the States, it’s like preschool plus kindergarten. But two years of preschool, one year of kindergarten. And for me, it’s been a blessing to be here in Mexico. I’ve always wanted to live overseas. I mean, that’s why I was in China for twelve years. I love speaking foreign languages. If you have any desire, you’ve already seen it come out a little bit, rick but if anyone ever shows just the teensy bit of desire that they want to live. In another country. I’m like, all over it. Here’s how you do it. Here’s the way it’s simple, it’s fun. That’s what I love, just meeting people, speaking, communicating in foreign languages, speaking. I still speak Mandarin Chinese with my son, actually, 100%.

Rick Mulready [00:31:16]:

So impressive. Wait, 100% of the time?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:31:20]:

Yeah.

Rick Mulready [00:31:22]:

Really?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:31:24]:

Maybe 98% of the time. It really is a lot. Well, because you got to understand, language is like my hobby. So many people are like, Quajo, you’re so good at languages, you learn so quick. But it’s just like the thing, like, if we’re talking deep down passion that I was meant for, it really is communicating with foreign language. So my daughter was in kindergarten when we were in China still, right before we got stuck out. And during that year, I had still hoped, even though I was hoping to get to China, I still hoped we could, so that my son could go into daycare or something. And so I just kept speaking Mandarin to him. I actually only spoke Mandarin to my daughter, but because she struggled with stuttering, the doctor’s advice, not that growing up in a multilingual environment means you’ll stutter. Absolutely not. Scientifically, we don’t know the reason for stuttering, actually, but in order to help her get over that issue, it would be better to provide a more rich linguistic environment in only two languages, spanish and English, rather than Mandarin, too. So I stopped with her.

Rick Mulready [00:32:30]:

Yeah, interesting.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:32:31]:

But with him, and maybe it was being vulnerable, maybe it was also therapy for myself. Like, I just never stopped and I probably needed somebody I do need somebody to speak Mandarin with. And so I just kept speaking Mandarin with him. He speaks Mandarin now, and people kind of look at us sideways, like, what’s going on there?

Rick Mulready [00:32:52]:

Do you speak English, Spanish and Mandarin?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:32:55]:

Yes.

Rick Mulready [00:32:56]:

That’s unbelievable.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:32:57]:

Yeah, English is his. Well, English and Spanish are fighting for first place, best language with my kids because they go to school, but it’s a local Mexican school, so it’s in Spanish all day long and then they speak English at home. We’re like immigrants here. And then he does speak Mandarin.

Rick Mulready [00:33:16]:

He’s going to have his pick of jobs when he grows up speaking so many languages.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:33:21]:

Ideally, ideally, we’ll see. Who knows what’s going to happen with jobs.

Rick Mulready [00:33:28]:

I will say that I am completely the opposite when it comes to languages, really? I can’t stand learning new languages because I find it very difficult. I took three years of Spanish in high school and then three semesters in college, and I can tell you what the word for orange is.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:33:53]:

There you go.

Rick Mulready [00:33:54]:

And a few other ones, but that’s the extent of so it’s a to. I want to ask you, and this will encourage people to come over to the YouTube channel as well as we wrap up here.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:34:08]:

OK.

Rick Mulready [00:34:08]:

I’ve actually always wanted to know this. I’ve never asked you before over your left shoulder, there is a picture of an ape in an astronaut uniform. I almost said costume. Uniform.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:34:23]:

Spacesuit.

Rick Mulready [00:34:23]:

Spacesuit. Thank you.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:34:24]:

Space ape, if you will.

Rick Mulready [00:34:26]:

Space Ape. And then over your right shoulder, you have something that gives me anxiety every time I see it. It’s the vision test, where you have the large letter, and then the letters get smaller. It gives me anxiety because I have really bad vision in my right eye. That’s a whole other story for a different time. But yeah. Why do you have those up on your walls?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:34:53]:

So, unfortunately, the answer is not super intriguing. The Ape, when you live overseas, it’s a transient community, right? If you’re talking about the expat community, people are there on contracts with businesses or jobs. They come and they go. And I saw this ape at a friend’s house. He ended up needing to move back to Chicago. He runs a big factory. And I was like, I want that. And I was able to get it for pennies on the dollar based on what it’s worth. So that is why I have be the plan was to have it be the background for my own personal brand YouTube channel, which I’m starting right now. So it’s there. That’s the ape. And it reminded me what was that, the Board Ape? Was it Board Ape Yacht Club for a hot second. When NFTs were super popular, it was like the Ape in the same pose, but they were unique, and they each had different kind of clothing. Anyway, it reminded me kind of of that okay.

Rick Mulready [00:35:57]:

I have no idea what that is, but okay.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:35:58]:

It’s okay. If you’re looking to understand this ape visually, it is an ape in a spacesuit. And he kind of looks forlorn, like he’s bearing the weight of global warming on his shoulders. It’s a cool ape, and it’s just an antique eye test. It’s a real eye test. It’s a true antique. It’s not a print. And I just thought it would be unique, and I needed something to fill up the space on the other side of my wall. Nice.

Rick Mulready [00:36:25]:

I need something over here and this over my right shoulder.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:36:29]:

You do?

Rick Mulready [00:36:30]:

I don’t know what I have little marvel figures on the top of my couch right here. So if you’re watching, I’m pointing to them right now. Nobody knows what they are, and they think they’re little toys. I mean, they basically are. My daughter plays with them. But, yeah, I’m going to move them. I need something cool up there. I basically want to turn my office into, like, a coffee shop.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:36:50]:

Do you remember the Pink Panther?

Rick Mulready [00:36:52]:

Yes.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:36:53]:

Did you like the Pink Panther?

Rick Mulready [00:36:55]:

Like, the original the cartoon? Oh, no, I wasn’t a big Panther fan.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:37:02]:

Okay, well, then maybe you’re not going to do Pink Panther. Maybe you could get, like, Andy Warhol esque painting of yourself, like, the four grids and the crazy colors that could.

Rick Mulready [00:37:11]:

Be cool of myself.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:37:14]:

Well, why.

Rick Mulready [00:37:17]:

Me?

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:37:17]:

Up on the wall. You’re a personality.

Rick Mulready [00:37:22]:

The wall on my left has become all the pictures that Maya, my daughter, draws.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:37:27]:

Yes.

Rick Mulready [00:37:27]:

It’s not on camera, but I can look at it right. I’m looking at them right here and just great to I don’t know, brings me happiness.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:37:35]:

I understand. I completely, 100% understand. They’re on the wall, out of sight of the camera. They’re all downstairs that we try to contain them to the playroom. And yeah, I think I was just telling you, my son just turned four back in March and it’s like my wife and I just can’t stop looking at pictures when he was a little yeah. This has been a really cool interview, Rick.

Rick Mulready [00:37:59]:

Yeah. I’m glad that we got to I hope that if you’re still listening right now, thank you for still listening. Very different episode, obviously, that we normally do here, which is why we’re doing it as a bonus episode. But I thought it’d be really important to know a background episode on who is Quajo. The other thing I will say as we wrap up here, you are one of the best storytellers, that you always have stories. And I don’t remember what the story was, but we were in Vegas for one of our accelerator retreats, and at the team dinner before the retreat started, we were sitting at a roundtable in this Italian restaurant and you just whipped out this story. It was so random, but I don’t even remember what it was, but I remember laughing hysterically. And you always have a great story. So that’s another thing you’re bringing to the podcast here is your great storytelling.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:38:59]:

Well, can I share one thing before we wrap up? I just want to share a bit of the vision I have as the co host, which is I want to make sure that when I interview people, that I do ask them and I share a bit of motivation because I want episodes that I record to be the motivation that helps the listener. Potentially the listener who you have a business, but they’re just in a dark spot in their business. Like, maybe you’re not sure that you’re going to get through the next week, and maybe it hurts that much more because you’ve already had a successful business, you’ve already gotten your business well off the ground. And things are just tough because I want my episodes to be the episode I needed. When I was stuck outside of China, my whole future was shot. At least the future that I could see was shot. And I’m in my in laws basement, my in laws who are anti, anti China. I love them. They’re anti China. And they’re like, you wasted twelve years of your life, now you got nothing. And I’m literally, like, praying. Figure eight in the morning in my basement, usually crying, like, I want episodes to be motivational or to have a section that’s motivational to help the listener. You, if you’re listening, get up and stand on your feet and then be able to take those strategic steps that you already know to take because you’re well learned and you read books and you listen to podcasts like The Art of Online Business. So that’s a bit about me, but I can’t wait to share more.

Rick Mulready [00:40:43]:

Yeah, I love it. We’ve got an episode coming up here about the top Facebook ads questions that you get, and it’s going to be sort of a tag team on those questions, which I’m really excited about. So thank you, everybody, for listening. You made it this far. Appreciate you. Quajo, really excited to have you here on the podcast as a co host. And thanks for you.

Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie [00:41:08]:

Thank you.

Rick Mulready [00:41:09]:

All right. Hope you enjoyed this. Inside look at Quajo and sounds kind of weird, right? Background and learning more about who Quajo is. Really excited, as I’ve been saying, to welcome him as the new co host here of The Art of Online Business podcast.