 A very very good morning to you, my name is Hilda Wadidi and you are watching Y254 channel and for our last interview of the day, this fine entrepreneurship Tuesday, we have a gentleman who has been selected or who had been selected to attend some schools that some of you know, it's not easy for us to get in if you have ever tried to apply for the young African leaders my god you know it's a problem you know if you don't know about Yali it's actually a flagship projector of the former U.S. president which is who is Obama so you can imagine with us in studio we have one team leader for brand K marketing and communications and still an alumni of a very powerful school so it's about time we uh hey we get to interact with him okay don't go we find out what happened because today's topic is mentorship training thank you so much for having me yes tell me what hi our viewers back at home hilda once again thank you so much for having me here today and let's see what the show has got to have i'm actually i'm actually founder but i pick myself up as a team leader brand K integrated marketing and communications limited and it's been a four-year journey looking at it in that a journey that started way back in 2015 2015 here we are in 2019 and I just decided I'm not going back to work for anyone again I just want to work for myself yeah well you're not going back to work fine but I think I would feel the same if I got drafted for that disco yeah yeah I just felt uh you see at times you talk mentorship yes at times that we're talking all this bit that we have here about brand K but it's been a process it's been a process looking at it for example between 2015 uh June to 2016 when I tell someone that at some point I decided to drive a taxi in the city as in someone known someone actually wouldn't probably believe it's true but one of my instances in this particular journey was I was a taxi driver during the night and a communications consultant during the day at a particular time brand K had not been born but 80s here we are at Y254 and are we telling our story yeah well before we go into your you know communications consultants by day and taxi driver by night I'm sure someone is wondering at home because I'm sure I was wondering like what is how do we get into this what is so special how did you get selected to join cohort 11 uh wow that's an interesting question what was so special about me I as a young person still who looks at other young people I think it was all about potential on my side I think I just took initiative when I saw the call for application uh opening I took the initiative but again this particular question reminds me of something yes I had I had I had information that Yali was available but I'd never got a link you see there were times as a young person you're going online and you're trying to google ways Yali yeah I know I've tried it trust me and uh it's interesting what happened is there was a certain Friday night when I was keeping vigil I wanted to get a client to take home and you know who the client was the client was just a recent graduate of the young African leadership the Yali program so when we're driving home she kind of engages me to find out hey are you really a taxi driver so I was like I'm not a full-time taxi driver this and this is what you do and that is what the lady told me hey you need to apply for this program and that's how two days later she shared with me the link and uh I applied for it and the rest as they say is history millions of us applied for this thing those of us who do know about this particular program why do you think they chose you why do they think they chose me right now I think it was about grit and uh passion and that particular determination to make tomorrow better because uh the key element of the program is when you go in will you be able to replicate your learning materials to the outside persons so the outside persons is the generation that's outside who've not accessed have not accessed the program and uh the key thing for me right now which kind of also inspires me since 2016 when I got off the program to date I think I've been in a position of giving about 68 people jobs as in either contractual and uh non-contractual and I think that's the beauty the beauty of it the beauty of it all 68 people have gotten jobs yeah about 68 I like the fact that you keep your numbers in check yeah about about 68 I'm looking at it in terms of uh contractual persons in terms of young people that have been able to get a budget just to give them some bits of work including even right now when I know I know for a fact I owe some young people quite a chunk of money for a project they did in April so in total it's about 68 is in that's contractual and non-contractual and uh I thank god for it yeah okay when it comes to brand care your company now um you focus mostly on infrastructure technology business and education why those particular areas and not maybe entertainment or something someone would ask uh my background actually is in comms and I'm actually I look at myself as a as a really versatile communications practitioner in that uh before doing all these things by the way I worked for nation media group so when I was getting off nation media group I had a stain to her by I had I had touched the entertainment world and uh yes it's it's it's an awesome space to be in yeah but then again when it comes to my purpose in terms of what I really want to achieve in uh in life in terms of serving people the entertainment route was not my approach what were you doing at nation media uh at nation media group I started up as a business executive person hey I had a steam to them uh the corporate affairs okay and uh I left nation media group as a branch manager uh within the marketing department and uh it was kind of an impromptu move when it happened but then again as Michelle Obama says the process of becoming I also look at it right now as uh that was my process of becoming I didn't have it clear that at some point I'll be leading uh uh a comms consulting agency but there it is here here we are today we're still pursuing and we're still pushing okay so what plans do you have when it comes to your organization even when it comes to diversification what happens like is it just mentoring what what's next for you uh what's next for me I'm looking at uh I'm looking at uh four years uh in this in that uh one of the key things I want to do over a lifetime is to build skill that I'll be able to give and to others and uh with the brand key communications is uh uh I'm saying that can it go beyond me in that will it be at some point that I can give it back to someone to run it and uh when you're asking me about what's there for me in four years is like you see right now I'm looking forward to going to do a doctor of philosophy in communications wow and uh the reason why I probably want to do that is I just want to build expertise within communications that will enable me to go back to the lecture halls and uh going back to lecture halls is I'm saying uh based on all knowledge I have within entrepreneurship communications can I be someone who will trickle this knowledge back to uh to the coming generation and that's basically what I'm looking at as also my retirement plan because actually running running a farm healer is crazy I can imagine is crazy like uh when I got a call yesterday from you uh you people asked me if I could come to this particular show I was actually down and today by the uh thanks to you guys I think you kind of just gave me something to wake up in in the morning off to just come and do and yeah yeah and when I talk about running companies crazy you know at times I ask myself for how long do I really want to keep on doing this because in order for you to inspire others you also need to inspire yourself and in order for you to inspire yourself also you need to also really build in a lot of energy in terms of accessing information networking and pitching which is not actually really easy and I was telling my friend yesterday that I don't think I want to be like a Jack Ma I don't think I want to be like uh the Bill Gates in terms of in terms of the billions but my desire and prayer is by the time I leave this world let me be at a place where I serve my purpose in terms of just leaving it empty and I think that's what drives me that's powerful but uh you mentioned something about uh people being able to identify your potential how do you identify uh potential from people the people that you train the youths that do come under brand k how do you identify their potential uh how do you get the 68 people to work uh I am I am at a process now whereby let me probably phrase it this way I'm a believer of giving chances and uh I'm a believer of giving chances and uh let me story tell let me answer this question differently uh there's a lady called Moombi Kiga Moombi Kiga is a public affairs manager at Dow Chemicals and Dow Chemicals is a global company now there's a time last year when Moombi met me uh she only had I think it was about three scenarios of me of me and her in terms of interaction the third one was hey kevins I want you to uh to reply a request of proposal you see when someone sends your concept then uh here she wants to get your ideas so Moombi shared that with me and uh I replied and uh all of a sudden not like he she wanted 10 years experience like 18 years experience Moombi gave me a global project of theirs to manage and that was last year in April yeah last in April and you know what happened I look at myself as someone who was born in Akuru and here it is I mean I don't be trying to get opportunities Dow Chemicals allowed me to handle the undersecretary of commerce from the United States Gilbert Kaplan and uh I did set up I did set up a whole vvp event for it uh she allowed me to handle the security team of the U.S. Embassy whereby Godekos comic the former ambassador was coming and there are plenty of other dignitaries who are supposed to come to the launch of this water project and you know since then I always ask myself if someone can trust me with such a magnitude event without introspecting me without kind of just trying to say will he deliver then who am I not to give someone else an opportunity after accessing that I mean how best can I trickle the knowledge I have to other people it's by just seeing someone like the way I can probably see heal the team and I'll be like she can try and the least that I can do is to give the person opportunity to try I have failed before and I picked up his failures to build up success and the same thing is also what I believe with all other young persons all other my peers that the only way to make someone scale up is by giving them an opportunity if you never give them an opportunity then they'll never get to kind of discover themselves or explore themselves I'm glad you've mentioned failure because now let's talk about that how did you come how did you cause many people say that uh failing falling is not really failing it may be just refusing to give to wake up after that is what is failing what was your experience what is it that you fail that completely and you are like oh and you had to pick yourself up from uh that you can recall out of your experience that I can recall one is uh when I when I was trying to find my way in that I've left nation media group things are not clear uh one day I think I was tasked to do a media briefing and uh it was somewhere at Samir and you know I kind of had that that confidence that my background is in media I have contacts in media they're going to come do you know what they never came uh no media person showed up at that particular event and uh the client was mad the client was the client was mad the client was the client was absolutely mad I remember that day very well it was on a Tuesday when he said and you know I asked myself asked myself you know that particular day asked myself what did I not do right what did I not do wrong actually to date I still look at that particular instance and I still I still don't have any idea what actually happened and uh I lost I lost that client I don't even think we've uh touched base to touched base uh to date yeah that's uh that was uh is it in 2017 January but I look at 2017 January and I'm here we are in 2019 June the magnitude of work that I've ended up doing since then to date is enormous it's incomparable yeah yeah as in it's completely incomparable and mark you at that particular time I had come out of the young African leadership initiative yes so in as much as it had now become an alumna yeah I'd already become an alumna but there it is again I'm accessing failure and uh all I can say now is uh I'm at a point whereby I know yes there's still much in life I'm at a point whereby I'm not scared of feeling and I'm at a point whereby I'm not scared of rising in that it's like I put them under a balance I am a believer of it's not a guarantee that even an event I have tomorrow is going to be successful but the key thing is I always say nowadays is however how tough it is it's my chance of stepping up and the only thing that can happen once I've stepped up is to step down and so long as I have the gift of life as in the only other alternative is for me to step up back again and I think that some of the mantras that are drive me right now when it comes to how do I look at failure I like the fact that you've mentioned that because someone also told me like if your life is a straight line then you're a dead person it has to go up down up down up down because even in the machine it shows your heart beat exactly exactly yeah well no no we've talked about shut down let's talk about the app like what has been your greatest accomplishment since the formation of brand brand K and also maybe during your time at the early my greatest beat is I will look at two weeks about two weeks ago that's last month wow so soon and that was that was really that was an event I was tasked by Dow chemicals again oh it's just it's just really interesting because I was tasked to set up a stakeholder event of young persons with zero to eight years experience within the industry are doing incredible stuff within the community and and I managed to achieve 102% attendance wow 102% attendance I mean you do interviews at times you'll call in a guest but 80s it was on a weekday these guys were busy and they graced this event and it was 102 so I was targeting 20 so I ended up having 22 including a chief executive officer of one of the hospitals of the country that was really that was really mind-boosting mind-boosting for me the other one is when I hosted a Gilbert Club couple and that's the Under Secretary of Commerce from the United States last year that was that was really something that was really something for us as a as a group and that was also really something for me as someone who's leading other people too yeah yeah well speaking of leadership when it comes to starting your own thing your own initiative and what have you how did you get your resources together how did I get my resources together since I don't know how to answer that I'll just say it was by grace I've listened to I've listened to the two the two interviews I were probably here before I all I know is I've never I never borrowed any money to kind of register the company and I never got into picking a loan with a bank to kind of setting up one or two three things that are probably I have so let me just let me just say this was great and even here today on this particular set I know I'm in depth I know there's someone who is waiting for me to dispatch some money which is due today and I was sitting there waiting and I was like man where am I going to get this particular money to kind of to kind of to kind of offset key for me as in from where started to where I am let me just say it's grace I mean for those who are spiritual as in either muslim either christian for me the journey of four years to where I am here today hilda as a young person I will just testify it's by grace because even my parents right now being a fast one of a family of four I've one and the three others you know they still don't understand what I do I know my sister yes kind of came in through uh we've worked together she's trying to find herself and I know right now she's uh comfortably somewhere as in working but if you to meet my dad today and if you to meet mom and probably ask them what his son is doing I am I am a hundred percent sure they'll not actually get to see what I get to do and an interesting thing when we're talking about these finances bits and all these sometimes last month when I'm telling you deliver this great event for one of our clients is my dad called me and he was telling me hey kevin's I've seen some advertisement for some work please all wish you you get to you get to try and that's yeah that's that's family love I mean at times it's the least at times we'll get to expect but sincerely in terms of the finances bit I can't really recount I can't really recount two moments when I was trying to do my taxi ride at night to coming in during the day to kind of bouncing back and being here right now sincerely I can't have the dots to attest how that particular journey was I know it was tough I know it was bitter I know probably that those times where I woke up and was like what do I need to do but here it is I just thank God that I'm here today as in and there's still so much ahead for me to pursue and just get to accomplish that's the least I can say I can't really lie that I picked up alone because I haven't but then again I know these friends like this one common friend of mine I'll call her Agnes Barasa Agnes Barasa is the director of red giant media agency such a young person just still like me I didn't know some projects when kind of I didn't have finances to kind of to kind of offset it I know she stepped up in for me and later on I did I did I was actually going to ask you about that now that you do the mentorship and training have you been mentored and trained by anybody and it's like you've already gone there already no but no the interesting thing about Agnes you know we are peers the uh me and Agnes who are peers also you can be mentored by your peers yeah it's really possible for you to get positive energy from someone who's close who is close to you in that uh the previous lady who was here was in tourism was talking about the element of yes if you can do it if you just have that belief that you can do it or rather you can see it from someone that this particular person is doing it so you kind of end up attracting some positive some positive energy to eat and I know as in for fact in a way on my journey of entrepreneurship uh Agnes kind of also influenced my mindset though she never probably even knew that she's influencing my mindset because we worked with her uh during her journey of entrepreneurship and uh I think when I was also just picking myself in that particular process I ended up picking some attitudes from her without her necessarily doing what without her necessarily necessarily knowing so you do subscribe to the idea that your network is worth your network yeah the network the network beat the more you need to kind of build a tangible network the more networked you become I think there's no any there's no any other way about that in that the people you kind of associate with in terms of your mindset the people you deal with in terms of how you speak to them the persons you hang out with in order for you to actually just think that global or just think that regional or think infrastructure though you're asking me you really need to kind of be intentional to package yourself around people you feel you're like minded with they need not necessarily be your internal circle but now they need to be kind of around around your circle then in the process I know you'll kind of weeding that person whom you live to really come in close close with you yeah so so if somebody was interested in finding you and in getting your services and maybe they're just learning we've been just hanging out with you you know asking a few questions where can they find you all right I'm really shy on answering that question and I know I'm shy on answering that question because I'm already overwhelmed in terms of the young persons who reach out to me for mentorship and I always tell my I'm easy and I always tell my few people rather people getting close to me that I really want to be intentional when I'm picking up advisory services to you other than just say hey come come come come I really want to be intentional and I'm not scared of giving it out you can find me at Kevin's Randeke Kevin's Randeke is my handle across all platforms that's kevin s r a n d i e k you can find me at Kevin's Randeke on Twitter at Kevin's Randeke on LinkedIn at Kevin's Randeke on Instagram at Kevin's Randeke on on on Facebook and of course again if you just want to check out the site you can get us on hwtp at brandkimc.com yeah it's been amazing having you today thank you so much for coming it's a pleasure to heal up for having me and I will look forward to many many more and let's just keep on building the future yes true that I like that young leader indeed thank you thank you thank you for having me yeah thank you thank you all right you've been watching entrepreneurship Tuesday please do not go anywhere my name is Hilda Wadidhi if you do want to participate if you do want to tell Kevin's a few things here and there you know if you want to talk to any of the guests we've had here please make sure you follow us on our social media platform it's at way to pay for channel everywhere please do not go anywhere