EP 13 // Turning Your Passion Into Profit While Building a Family with Eyram Tawia

NOTE: Please excuse any errors in this transcript; it was created using an AI tool. Akua Nyame-Mensah 0:07 Welcome to the open door podcast. My name is Akua Nyame-Mensah. I also respond to Aqua and yeah, I'm a certified executive and leadership coach recognised facilitator, and former sort of leader that loves supporting reluctant firefighting and overwhelmed leaders. I've worked with them to help them clarify where they should focus their time, and energy each and every day so that they can love themselves, love their work, and ultimately love their life. If you're looking to learn leadership information and hear different perspectives, you are in the right place. My aim in this podcast is to help you see that one of the most productive and profitable things you can do is deeply understand yourself. Understand how you show up, understand how you thrive, and allow yourself to align everything in your work in your life, and in your business to support that, think of this podcast as your weekly opportunity to receive leadership support. And remember, there is no one right way to lead yourself or others. Thank you so much for taking the time to join me today. Let's get started. Hello, and welcome to the open door conversations Podcast. Today I am bringing you one of my favourite interviews ever, I had so much fun talking to this amazing, amazing entrepreneur who is so passionate about what he does. So today we're going to be talking about turning your passion into profit while building a family. And I will be talking to I think one of the most interesting entrepreneurs on the African continent. And once you start to listen to this, you will understand why this is such a fascinating human being or why he is such a fascinating human being, we will be talking about how he has built a globally recognised business based on his passion. Okay. Another thing that we will be covering that I think is so important is what is it like building a business and being a father to four children, and also being married to an entrepreneur as well. And last but not least, we're going to be covering a lot of his thoughts around how to pivot, a business that's quite unique. And he's going to be sharing a lot of advice he has around sort of building partnerships, and you know, making sure that you are supported by the right people and have a bigger why. So without further ado, let's get into the conversation. Thank you so much for joining me Aram. I am so excited about our conversation. And we're going to be talking about turning your passion into profit while building a family a ROM. Welcome to the show. Speaker 1 3:04 Thank you. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Finally. Akua Nyame-Mensah 3:08 Amazing. Yes, we've tried this several times. He is a busy entrepreneurs, everyone a busy entrepreneur. So I'm so excited that he has you had been so gracious with his time to join us today. So for folks meeting you for the first time, can you share a little bit about who you are and what you do? Speaker 1 3:25 Yes. So my name is a ROM aquifer Talia. I'm the CEO and co founder of lattice Arts, which is one of Africa's very fast, full time we do game development company in Sub Saharan Africa is specific. We started way back in 2009 with a focus on digitising African stories through video games, and they get our comics and we've been able to do that to a franchise we call Africans legends that tells superheroes or we imagine African superheroes in a fantasy world as heroes so they fix Africa. So we have villains as well those believers that represent the issues of Africa. So these heroes are fantasising stories, fantasy stories and fantasy world made near future Africa similar to Marvel's like Avengers or Justice League of DC. So this universe is called Africa's legends. And we have really cool heroes reading from Anansi. Yes, and to Shaka Zulu, and cool villains also that are made up of issues in Africa that child traffickers, corrupt religious leaders, rebels and all that. So yeah, it's a really cool Universe, and it's been going on quite well. And we also use gamification games to actually aid advocacy efforts from existing company needs on the continent, like using games to teach about malaria prevention of, or keeping hygiene, sexual reproductive issues. So these are called gamification. And that is one of the successful wings of the company as well. Yes. And in general, we just have fun, but personally, games have been my passion way back from childhood. I've been quite consistent in this video game industry. So way back, if you asked my friends about a ROM, they will ask me is he making games right from nursery school? Now and I said, it's not going to be any news. If you eat the car. I'm making games now. So that is a bit about me, but I just summarised it as as father, husband, game enthusiast, a geek, I attended kn USD, which is a university in Kumasi, Ghana. Here I read computer science, I'm a chorister, and I love good food as well. Akua Nyame-Mensah 6:03 I love that. Thank you so much for sharing so many different parts of you. And I think for so many people probably listen to this, they want to know, how did you get started, right? So it started with this passion. And what I also love about what you share is that you've also shared how you've been able to build all these different arms to your business, and really help people see how games can be used not just to entertain, but also to inform and to educate. But how did you get started? Speaker 1 6:31 Yes, so I think I said games have been my lifelong passion. So I'm sure I was born with a console in my head, probably maybe. But this is what God has called me to contribute to the weld. And I appreciate him for making me find this passion earlier and grow in a in the right direction with the right people. But way back growing up I've been passionate about comics, anything robots, comics games, I've been really passionate about that. And my parents also have been quite supportive. I was born in a university environment on campus in TN USD back in Kumasi. I'm an 80s Vaughn. So I experienced both the analogue and the digital. So I saw all these Commodore 64, like very low bid games transition into 3d when it came to the late 90s with the PlayStation, the Nintendo 60 fours and it growing into hardcore PC games and how it all started. So I've been there and I've observed it in all the different times. And this, this did not lead me not participating at every point I participated a lot and fast forward to I think junior high school. I used to draw comics when I was in primary school and my dad used to he was an art professor. So he used to illustrate my comics for me my stories. Fast forward to junior high school, I met a friend. He's a pastor now, but he could draw like so we became partners and I brought the stories and he did the drawings right. His role was way better than my I was good at the story. So we built we developed several comics, and I think in junior high school to that time, it was junior secondary school two, I decided like I had comics. Then I had Greenland's and Batman, Superman, they had come the games advertised within the comics, right? So you open a Marvel comic and you see play Batman on Super Nintendo. So I wanted to have those kinds of advertisements in the comments that we made. And that's how I started pursuing game development. So I started building my first language was pure basic. And look API. If you don't want to know me, then because I was I was crazy. I was a nice, I Akua Nyame-Mensah 9:13 love it. Speaker 1 9:14 in it that I really want to play, I would bug you until I learn it. Right. So that's how I develop my passion for video game development. So I made games for my comics. I just wanted my comic characters to be in the computer screen. So I learned game development. We build them I met like minds. I always move with like minds. And that's a big lesson that I've shared with other people always look at best friends or who you share vision with and can dream big to become the best people in the world. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs were our biggest mentors then right. We wanted to be there and more right and we work together. So fast forward to university So I decided to use one of my games I had written in junior high school that sort of cycles and make it 3d into my final year thesis. So I was the first to ever produce a thesis in video games on kn USD computer science. And actually, when I proposed that the professors were very like, no, like, we are not know this game, you want to make a game and, and then one of the professors just said, look, a ROM, I'll supervise you take a shot. And here we are, everyone is proud of made them proud of a stack to the dream. And the whole new industry has has begun, I met my co founder, who was from Kenya or who is from Kenya. And we met virtually fourth online, he was taking credit for being the first to have made a game I was taking credit for to be the first to have made a game that was back in 2006. And we fought it out and we decided to partner to make it happen. So instead of working in competition, we actually decided to collaborate and grow like, let's see, has been blazing the trail since then. So that is a brief history. I read the book, uncompromising passion, the humble beginnings of an African game industry, and everything is in there. So you can find it on Amazon and read about the whole story. Akua Nyame-Mensah 11:22 I love it. And we'll make sure that we actually include that in the show notes for sure. Because I think so many people will want to hear this. And I mean, this entire time you guys listen to this can't see my face. But I am so excited. It is such a great story. And that's really why I wanted Iran on my podcast, because I think it's been absolutely amazing what he's been able to build. So Iran, tell us a little bit about some of the pieces of your business. What is it that Larry guards does, and maybe also share a bit how you also pivoted during the pandemic as well? Speaker 1 11:57 Yep. So that's a really great question. And, you know, let the Act has it's over a decade old and I was telling you that way back that we started as letting arts do I have started all this game journey before that, as it's like the hallmark of or the mark of the beginning of a new era writing in a professional light. So the focus is to build up to preserve African culture in modern forms that can stand the test of time, right. Growing up, we've all been brainwashed, or we all consumed American culture, a lot of TV content, Cartoon Network. Look, I grew up knowing everything about Thor, right, who's a Nordic god of thunder without even knowing my local stories, right? I grew up knowing that always in America that the aliens are always the best is always happening outside. So I kept asking myself, why can't Why aliens don't know that they need to attack a professor in a bunker here in Accra or been right so even the first comic I do, like we were brainwashed so much that the first comic I do though, as a child living in Ghana, I was setting up my my fantasy in Rome, right. cybers was in Rome, and it was a human clone. I loved him. And so the character who was you know, I was even coming up with funny names that were looking like Roman made by a Ghanian. So that is how much these cartoons brainwash us. And it's happening to my kids, too now, like, they know all about Superman, Batman, and all that. So first of all, like, look, these mediums or this media, are able to take the attention of children and everyone so much see what what candidate storytelling is powerful. And it's up to you to know how to tell your stories in interactive and compelling ways that stand the test of time, right. So how can we create or preserve our stories in these formats and that is the basis of the formation of Latin art. So it was purely is not our tagline is not point are we building a company in Africa we are building a whole new industry and our industry like that is a calling from God which includes sacrifice it includes direction it includes includes passion, and it includes a heavy lift to drive you through all these challenges, right. So so that is how come let it was formed in our name Letty Letty arts Lottie it's the star star in our my LA language right? And biblically it was the star that shows the sign of a new door so the star that directed the Wiseman to Jesus Christ right so we are the star that you should look at when it comes to the video game industry, directing the gaming industry to glory and that is how Letty arcs the name came about. So we that is what we do that is the primary thing in transforming and preserving our local African rich culture interacting for which is video games and cons, then it comes to the benefit of the video game industry. You know, in the West, the gaming industry is bigger than the movie and the music industry combined, right. And it's over $175 billion. Now, as an industry, right, one of the biggest, and Africa still contributes less than 2% of this amount that are quoted, but we are over a billion people on the continent. So 10 years ago, I asked myself, myself, my co founder, that look this industry, if we don't dive in and bring it into Africa, we will lose our imagine Africa contributing, or Africa, embracing video games is all the opportunities that it gives globally, would be introduced here on the continent, because people don't expect games to be made. From here, you don't go to the university and tell your parents, you want to make video games, they will shoot you sorry. I'm a doctor, I'm a lawyer. So we have to introduce new titles. So for me, over the past 10 years, I write game developer, like I started with software developer, but I think two years down, I changed my title game developer. And I'm so proud of it now. And I'm called a game developer. And since we started over, we're about five fragmented companies across the continent. By now over 40 African companies, game companies have been formed across the continent. And it's growing and we are coming together. So we are both building a business and an industry, which is way more than just making revenue. But we are working with potential potential market and creating the market and selling to the market and propagating the benefits of it and introducing education introducing, like the benefits across the spectrum. So it's way more than just forming a company. So that is exactly what natty X is set for in our mission on the continent to do that, for us, at least for for my generation X, you see a superhero character on screens that has its gain, as its comic that has it that kids are talking about, if a kid picks a phone, they should be playing a local game than a foreign game. So that is what that the US is set to do. Akua Nyame-Mensah 17:44 I love that. And I love your commitment to it. And beyond that, I love the fact that you're creating this ecosystem that really goes beyond you, right and your company and really spans across the continent. What are some of the lessons that you've learned around building this ecosystem and building out these types of associations that are supporting something that is quite new to many people. Speaker 1 18:05 So for me, the lesson is just have passion, you know, be richer in passion than in money. Because money is an illusion, it comes into edits board that blesses you, with my end of the day that do it all you do with your mind, right. And once you do with your mind, God himself is going to bless you with the aftermath. So I'm not saying money is not important. But passion. And focus is very important. And when you are passionate about something, surround yourself with the right people that write positive mindset that can propel you right through that because everything you do has its challenges, but you need the energy around the positive energy around to propel you. Right though the negative feedbacks are they take that as feedback and use it as a stepping stone, pick up the positivity and push again, right. And that is how I've been traversing this. And it's a big lesson I've learned over the years that you definitely have to be very passionate and focused. And I would say that my religious aspects of depending on the heavenly like God, and in all this right positivity, I hope like whatever you worship, or whatever you believe in believing a heavenly power that that is able to strengthen you to push you and for me, I really know that there's a heavenly power that has your mandate that propels you through these, these challenges, right, and encourages you to keep going, especially in the pandemic, we learn a lot that God prepares you for situations and when this situation happens, and you tend to him he actually read across your value to you and actually puts you at places that shocks you that wow, all these while that that I've been doing this, this was exactly what he was preparing for. And that's happened to me during the pandemic, and the company has gained even much more light than before. Right? It was hard during the pandemic bypass you talked about we had to pivot and not even pivot pivot internally because we realised other strengths that we had as a business. And we utilise them in a way that was able to sustain the company into like, a level where it will no one realised that anything had happened to Intel. Right. So that has been something that I've been very much focused on. And I think you should definitely use the heavenly realm to propel you and it's all about the positive mindset. When challenges come, Akua Nyame-Mensah 20:56 can you Would you be open to sharing a little bit about some of these new opportunities that have come your way and that are keeping you busy? Yes. Speaker 1 21:03 So let the let the art has been working on a lot of projects, mostly through partnerships like they are projects that we've partnered on with other studios across the world. We have our internal products as well. Basically, they are three pillars athletic arts, we have our internal projects, which is African legends, and a superhero universe which is a franchise with superheroes all over and the Africans Legends we've been able to have some really successful characters. There's one part comes up that was written by a lady portfolio EDA, they do a full list with cerebral palsy, and develop this character with that, who also lives with say about Paul's encounter is a sage is a first superhero in with cerebral palsy in the superhero universe, and she's African, and this character has become a global icon. All over the world. We've had some really good partnerships with Hamza, some licences here, and pathmatics Very soon seen comes in as part of huge, I'm not going to disclose it yet. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. And we have other characters within the Africa. Legends investment is also under the making. Then we have Afro comics, which is our publishing platform, which is a platform where if you want to consume African Afro centric content, download it, we have over 60 content creators in there over 500 African content in terms of reading from comics, graphic novels, wallpapers, short animations in Africa comics, that also has its own business, which is also growing as a distribution portal. And when you publish within Afro comics, as an artist, you get 70% of the revenues, and we take that 2%, but it's a platform for Afro centric content. So if you need something for your kid, or for yourself, just go there you find all the cool comments on there. Then in the middle, we have consulting consultant is our b2b side of Latin x, where we have clients that we work for. So these in game solutions and creative solutions for them. So we try to stick the story towards games only, so that the story is feel and know that we were successful making only games, right because that, that needs to be told that I didn't do any banking job, I've made games and I was I became successful with a huge family giving taking care through through video games. So consulting is the gamification when so we make serious games, games that teach civic education games that teach health and financial literacy. And we have very renowned prestigious clients that we cherish and we also work with so that those are the things that we work with. Currently, we are working on some of some very interesting game projects in the agri tech sector. We are working on some also in the sexual education, sexual rights, education sector as well. We are working in the tourism sector and the tourism sector is it's an interesting one because there's a consortium between for Game Studios across Africa coming together to work on that particular project. And there was one successful one that came during the pandemic as well, where we became narrative consultants to a game like a global game. There's a company that has a game railroading called fallow ranch and there's a character Astra, which who's a Ghanaian character and we were privileged to be part of a team who did the narrative Consultant. So that Astra is seen in the right light as a Ghanaian when introduced into a game, because we are in a world now where representation in video games is becoming very key. So as as part of our experience in the storytelling industry and comic industry, we were able to be exposed to a huge company like Riot Games to actually contract as narrative consultants for Astra and I'm proud that Astra is doing extremely well within the Balrog communities. And I think Astra is the best ambassador now for Ghana, because I'm sure she has mentioned Charlie, about 10 million times by now. And like mentioning Jollof, everywhere, as well. So yeah, I think these are the opportunities gaming bring to a country or in the long run, preserve culture in a way that you can reapply as many times as much as possible. Right. So these are the things that let the US have been involved in lately. Akua Nyame-Mensah 26:07 I love it. Thank you so much for sharing that I know that there are people listening to this that their minds have probably sort of expanded, and you've like, created so many new options for them and things they've maybe never even thought of. I'd love to shift a little bit to talk about who you are outside of your work. Because I know one of the things that definitely motivates you is the fact that you're a father. Can you share a little bit about what that's like? And you know, how, what was it even like going from having two kids to four? Right. So, yeah, share a little bit more about that. Speaker 1 26:39 Yeah. So I think the pandemic but very surprising, lockdown was very surprising. Right? So So I think, father of four, I have a very beautiful wife, who is also an intrapreneur also doing very well. Yes. Yeah. So we have two intrapreneurs. Just doing our God given mandate in this life, providing value and smiles to people globally. So she was in HR quit and focused on the fashion industry. I'm selling traditional cloth that we were in Ghana here coaching, and and it's growing very, very fast. And she's great at it. So growing very fast is what prestige can take one of the fastest growing Instagram shops globally. And together raising two boys who came the first boy after we got married, the first boy dropped less than a year. Akua Nyame-Mensah 27:43 Just dropped the stock bought it, you know, the stork sorry, brought it. Speaker 1 27:48 But we realised the second one was in so actually, the first two were like twins, then surprise either. We're like, oh, no, this one is just too much. So we had to manage to strong boys energetic boys files, I was managing Letty arts and she was also working, we are family support, but most of it is not essential. I was the pronoun she was an employee then. And then at a point we had to decide, or actually she got burnt out and just said that she was paid to focus on the kids. And that has been good because I try my best to close early. I don't joke with the family. Always there for my paper because my dad was always there for my mom. Like I grew up from a home where there's Dad, there's mom, very strict airway, traditional home, and she also had the same so we wanted to provide that to the kids, for the kids. So I balance it with that I was a very active coder. So coding and managing family. Yeah, it was something that you had to have some insights from care and love, you know, just make sure that your kids have the best, right so that that has been great. And together as husband and wife. We raised these kids. The first is six years old. Now the second it's five, then during the pandemic we were surprised or caught surprised us with to two other kids. twins, a boy and a girl. Wow. And that that's a total blessing. So suddenly, I'm at the fourth floor a father of four. So I want more people to join me with the four kids. Speaker 2 29:38 They need to get to your level elevators to get to the fourth floor. Speaker 1 29:42 Like I have three and I'm like oh, I'd want to so that we are all the same right? So yeah, but then it's been amazing. These kids these twins. Hi blessing, I think we received them with joy and peace. Praise God for this wonderful thing, God will only give you things that he didn't like something that he knows you can handle. And the blessings come as well. So, yeah, opportunities are springing up as well. Yeah. Thinking as quickly as possible to readjust and accommodate the family and make sure we have the best of life as a family. But as a family, man, yes, I really am passionate about my family, I do my best to be there. For them as a father, whilst I'm there for the company, as well as a game developer. Surprising, surprisingly, I tried to like I'm very keen in the education aspect as well in Ghana, right how to use games to teach kids and teach kids about programming, about coding, and all that. So I have a curriculum that I've developed myself over the years that I'm testing out within different age groups. So I've run within boot camps over the years, I've run it in Zimbabwe, Belgium, Afghani King, Kenya, Ghana, in Ghana, of course, and it's coming up cool. Currently, I'm teaching it in South Africa online. I make a lot of time to provide these guidelines for these upcoming kids. So my kids also benefit from things like that. My, my mentality now is that kids, you know, games is an extreme art, and an extreme science discipline. It's not just science, like games, people are like stem stem No, we are seeing. So we are consciously introducing the x v, the science, technology, engineering, mathematics, right, though they argue that automatically, there's art, we want the x to be mentioned. So steam. So steam is a movement to onboard people into STEM, right. So because x is fun, and in Africa, we are more artistic than technical. And we are advocating that we want more technical people more technical people, you have to have a fun way to onboard them to be interested in the tech. So game development is a perfect way to bring extreme artists and extreme science, scientists together to produce a technical product. As a video game, though it's visual, it's very technical. And by the time you finish making the game, everyone who was involved in making the game equally knows about the technical structure and the artistic structure. So my curriculum uses the anatomy of games to actually encourage us into science into STEM. So I call it STEAM. I call it the steam initiative, steam Africa, because I really believe that writers are also engineers, right? I really believe that science is 80% art, and 10 and 20%. Technical, because robots, anything that can be measured can be replaced by robots. And it's only in the arts that cannot be mentioned. Right? Artificial Intelligence is, is replacing a lot of structured disciplines, right. So is the unstructured disability, the creative mindset that robots are not able to do. So the ACT discipline is where things are going to go in future, but they need to know about the technical so that they can marry it together. And that's where my curriculum using the structure of game design to teach computer science and engineering concepts. That's where its strongest, and I'm trying to onboard or onboarding my kids in a way to that and in doing that, I use a concept called human concept interaction HCI I believe that when kids are growing, you don't have to just show code into their minds, you need to let them experience computers in different forms, right? A computer has keyboard, some don't have keyboard, some compute even a microwave is a computer a calculator is a computer so just expose them to different gadgets, which is human computer interaction, right? And then they themselves will would have the cognitive mind to know that okay, every tip is a game console, it has a power button, when they see anything, they will know those are looking out for the power button before they decide on how to operate it. So these are concepts that even I'm using my family as an experiment for so that's how my life has been like right? Being a family man and still using my case as an experiment for these things that I want to do. Akua Nyame-Mensah 34:47 I love it. I absolutely love it. Thank you so much for sharing a little bit of how you blend to both your work and your family and and how you really keep them in mind as you're building out these different products. So this has been absolutely an mazing I could continue to talk to you forever. But unfortunately, we are out of time. So where can people find out a little bit more about what you do online? Speaker 1 35:09 Yes, so they can just visit us at Naughty arts.com That's the website or just Google my name with letting ads you'll find a tonne of articles and interviews that are conducted and my contact is send us an email info at let the Alpha comm catch us on our social media. And also guess just experience our games. If you're in Ghana, we have a trivia game or running with MTN code MTN hot seat you can check it out. If you want to read more about my bag, I have a very interesting story. That's how you actually does so my book uncompromising passionate it's on it's on Amazon, you can order a copy and then you can give it out to your children is 200 pages. But it's an easy read and the humble beginnings of an African videogame industry as I experienced it. So how I started doing all this is in that book. And there's also some statistics and data in that book as well. So once you have that you can also shoot me an email want to intern with us or by a university student who wants to come home to the gaming industry. That's a send me an email and I'll receive you. Akua Nyame-Mensah 36:24 Yes, this is perfect. Thank you so much for joining me today. Unknown Speaker 36:27 Thank you too for having me. Akua Nyame-Mensah 36:29 Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to today's episode. If you enjoyed what you heard today, please share it with your friends. We can continue this conversation on social media the links to my socials so that is LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. You can find them in the show notes. If you tagged me in a story and include the hashtag hashtag ask Akua I will share a special little gift with you. Thank you so much once again for your time and I cannot wait to share my next episode with you stay safe and sane.