How Twi Ghanaian Solopreneurs Revolutionized The Open Mic
When the Ghanaian Finance Minister told his people that they were going to have to fend for themselves, three solopreneurs took him up on his offer.
We can’t save you.
We can’t save you.
That was the rock that the Finance Minister of Ghana dropped on his people last year.
In a public broadcast to the country, he admitted that the government couldn’t afford to hire any more employees. The sobering message was clear: the people of Ghana were going to have to fend for themselves.
Three Ghanaians - Kalyjay, SneakerNyame, and SpookyTheManiac - all took the Finance Minister up on his offer.
Just one year later, they represent an emerging class of Solopreneurs who’ve managed to monetize the digital open mic while growing a combined following of almost 1M.
Open mics are the worst. The WORST.
The bars are dirty, the people are dirty, and the jokes are the dirtiest.
Yet, open mics are where everyone starts out. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a musician or a comedian or even an annoying holier-than-thou slam poet…your journey begins at the open mic.
Before the pandemic, open mics served as the training ground for tomorrow’s stars. After the pandemic, it became illegal to go to a bar. So, the open mic went online. But they don’t call it an open mic online. They call it Social Audio. Social Audio is an open mic with a very specific twist: in social audio, the audience has a microphone, too.
Social audio is an open mic with a very specific twist…
When you’re on stage at physical open mic, you’re the only person in the room with a microphone. You have all the power.
But when you’re on stage at the open mic on Clubhouse or TwitterSpaces, the audience members have a microphone, too. The power is shared; you can’t bully them around like you might’ve been used to. This visceral interaction between Host, Co-Host, and Audience Members and Hecklers is revolutionizing guerilla marketing for emerging brands.
Unlike typical stages at conferences where the people pay to speak, this digital open mic doesn’t recognize status; it recognizes talent and talent alone. Nobody knows your title, the company you work with, or the snazzy suit you have on. In fact, they don’t care.
Just like at an open mic, if your joke bombs, you’re a nobody. If your joke kills, you’re a killer. Ghana is showing the world how to monetize the open mic. In the next year, expect a Cambrian Explosion of art from the region.
The Problem With TikTok: It’s Too PUSHY
Kalyjay is a comic, SneakerNyame a shoe plug, and SpookyTheManiac a musician. All three have very different businesses with very different end goals, but they all have one thing in common: they launched their international careers on Twitter, amassing a combined following of almost a million strong.
There’s a lot of marketers who’ll tell you that you need to create a TikTok account to make money online, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Pushing is the strategy of Goliaths because they can afford to push content with million-dollar ad budgets.
The problem with TikTok is that it’s cold. You post a video, someone posts a response, one at a time. It’s as distant as you can get from an engagement perspective. Most of all, it’s a push strategy, and push-strategies are only one side of the marketing equation.
Most of all, it’s a push strategy, and push-strategies are only one side of the equation.
Pushing is when you shove content in the face of your customer until they give up and buy. Pushing is the strategy of Goliaths because they can afford to push content by leveraging their million-dollar ad budgets.
But the problem is, when you’re just starting out, you don’t have the budget of a Goliath. Failure begins when David’s try to swing swords instead of slinging slingshots.
Kalyjay, SneakerNyame, and SpookyTheManiac are three Ghanaians who’ve transformed their business lives not on TikTok but on TwitterSpaces.
On TwitterSpaces, you grow your following with the one thing that sets you apart from everyone else: your voice
Unlike on TikTok, or Linkedin, or Facebook, or Instagram is that their following is not based on videos, or pictures, or blogs, or podcasts. On TwitterSpaces, you grow your following with the one thing that sets you apart from everyone else: your voice.
Many people know about Clubhouse, but the market is still wrapping their head around TwitterSpaces, a platform where you pull your dream clients to you instead of merely pushing content to them ad nauseum.
Let’s step back for a moment. How did Social Audio EAT THE PODCAST?
Social Audio Eats The Podcast
On The Howard Stern Show, Howard and Robyn interview Guests while audience members call in one at a time to ask questions. It’s the way he’s run his show for over three decades.
That’s NOT how Social Audio works.
Imagine a radio show where you had Howard Stern on the phone with 10 other comedians - that’s TwitterSpaces. That’s Social Audio. Think of an open mic where the audience has a microphone, too. You don’t wait for people to call in - they interrupt the guests themselves.
Above: Notice that every speaker is the same size. You don’t know their titles, their names, the clothes they’re wearing, nor their degrees.
Traditional shows and podcasts all involve a Host with occasional Guest Speakers. In contrast, Social Radio is like a radio Show on steroids. When you open up a Social Audio Room like a TwitterSpace on TwitterSpaces, you’re immediately on stage with your chosen Co-Host, and your conversation pulls people off the Twitter streets as they pass by, people looking for a lively bar with hot humans and cold drinks.
But I Hate Twitter
No you don’t. You hate the idea of Twitter.
We live in a world where everything is fake. The shoes are fake, the food is fake, and the personalities are the fakest of them all. Given the fakeness in the world, people are now scrambling for any semblance of authenticity, and that’s what social audio on TwitterSpaces is doing.
People don’t like Facebook but they often use it to advertise. In the same spirit, you don’t have to like Twitter to use it to attract clients, because clients are looking for realness.
Instead of just pushing videos and pictures to your ideal customers, imagine sitting at a bar with them and just listening. Listening and adding in your two cents whenever the inspiration strikes.
At 5:22 in the above video expert marketer Mohit Rajhans reveals that content isn’t king; connection is. Content doesn’t sell, connection does. In a world where everyone’s pushing, those who are learning how to pull in the connections they want - the ideal clients they want - are taking over the whole wiase.
The Next Globetrotters
Kalyjay the comedian now has a thriving comedy business and is the number one Ghanaian influencer on TwitterSpaces with almost 700k followers. Not bad for someone who was banned for their #FixTheCountry campaign only a year before.
SneakerNyame, Ghana’s shoe plug, not only has a thriving sneaker business but is now recognized in his own right as a fast-rising comedian and must-have television guest.
SpookyTheManiac went from singing in his bedroom to writing the theme song for TwitterSpaces itself. Today, he holds equity in a Canadian startup that he wrote the theme song for, all based on his success from TwitterSpaces.
All of this from TwitterSpaces.